Florida's implicated Republicans

Two Florida Republicans and possibly a third — Rep. Brian Mast — play starring roles in the indictment, although none is named.

Unlike President Donald Trump‘s former political adviser Roger Stone and political operative Aaron Nevins, Mast’s identity is the least certain of any of the Florida Republicans hinted at in the indictment.

[...]

Almost as soon as the indictment was released Friday, Florida Republicans, Democrats and even allies of Mast speculated that the congressman’s campaign was likely implicated — in great part because a former campaign consultant for Mast admitted last year to The Wall Street Journal and then to POLITICO that he used some of the hacked information in 2016.

[...]

“Even prostitutes are embarrassed by how dirty political consultants are. It’s become a business that’s 100 percent zero-sum. It’s all about the results,” said Jacob Perry, a former consultant for Mast who worked on local issues in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, which sits on the northern edge of Southeast Florida.

“If this is true, I think Brian is absolutely a victim of trusting the wrong people,” Perry said. “If this happened, it happened without his knowledge or approval. He is one of the most ethical people you will ever meet. He has zero tolerance for unethical behavior.”

  Politico

Sure, sure.

The indictment is vague concerning the unnamed congressional campaign, saying only: “On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for U.S. Congress. The Conspirators responded using the Guccifer 2.0 persona and sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate's opponent.”

[...]

Nevins, another Republican consultant and blogger, separately became involved with Guccifer 2.0 when he saw news reports of its information and an invitation for reporters to get the hacked information. Under his @HelloFLAnews account, he direct-messaged Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter and on Aug. 22 received “approximately 2.5 gigabytes of data stolen from the DCCC,” according to the indictment. “The stolen data included donor records and personal identifying information for more than 2,000 Democratic donors.”

[...]

Nevins said he “freely spoke” last year to federal investigators about his contacts with Guccifer 2.0 and said he is neither a suspect nor a target in the investigation.

Nevins said he did not communicate with [...] anyone on the Mast campaign. And though Nevins is from the Fort Lauderdale area, home of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, he said the two men didn’t coordinate in talking to Guccifer 2.0.

[...]

In addition to communicating with Guccifer 2.0, Stone was also in communication with WikiLeaks, which is identified in the indictment as “Organization 1.” According to the indictment, the conspirators posing as Guccifer 2.0 were in repeated contact with him about the hacked data and asked him on Sept. 9, 2016.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.