Trump 2.0 - No more "free and fair" elections

Employees tasked with helping to secure elections from foreign threats and disinformation within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have been placed on administrative leave. The move puts the security and integrity of elections in the U.S. — especially at the state level, where local election officials rely on CISA resources to securely run elections — at risk.

According to multiple reports, at least 17 employees of CISA, which is housed within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, were recently put on leave. The employees, according to the Associated Press, worked specifically within CISA’s election efforts, helping state and local election officials secure their elections from cyber attacks and handle foreign and domestic-based disinformation and influence campaigns.

  Democracy Docket

Trump 2.0 - Foreign interference welcome

 

Explaining TikTok legal status

I can't summarize it.  Read Elie Mystal's article.

And, that's where I expect this is going.  Totally effed.

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

Shoe on the other foot

“Malicious cyber actors” from Iran dangled sensitive material about former President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in front of President Joe Biden’s campaign team, according to U.S. authorities.

Three federal agencies said Wednesday that the “stolen, non-public” information was emailed to journalists as well as individuals “associated with the Biden campaign.” The operation took place over June and July this year, before the president suspended his White House bid.

“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” read a joint statement from the FBI, CISA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

[...]

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign acknowledged to CNN that “a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails” with material that appeared to be “a spam or phishing attempt.” The campaign has cooperated with law enforcement as it investigated the matter.

“We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity,” the spokesperson added.

[...]

The Trump campaign said in a statement to CNN that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “must come clean on whether they used the hacked material,” claiming the operation marks “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help the Democratic Party.

“What did they know and when did they know it?” a spokeswoman asked the BBC.

In a late-night all-caps Truth Social post, Trump accused Harris and her campaign of “illegally spying” on him. “To be known as the Iran, Iran, Iran case!” he fumed. “Will Kamala resign in disgrace from politics? Will the Communist Left pick a new candidate to replace her?”

  Daily Beast

Hang on...

Donald Trump has said he would accept damaging information on his opponent during the 2020 election campaign, even if it came from a foreign government.

In an interview with broadcaster ABC News, the president denied this would count as meddling in an election.

"They have information - I think I'd take it," he said.

  BBC

Because they can't win if they don't have foreign help

The Senate will incorporate the annual intelligence policy legislation into the National Defense Authorization Act -- but only after stripping language from the intelligence bill that would have required presidential campaigns to report offers of foreign election help.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that Senate Republicans forced the removal of the election reporting provision as a condition to include the intelligence bill on the must-pass defense policy legislation.

  CNN

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

Trump's criminals: George Nader update

The Justice Department on Tuesday announced it had indicted eight men for conspiring to illegally funnel $3.5 million to political committees supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid. Prosecutors say the money came from George Nader—a businessman who was was recently charged with trafficking a child for sexual purposes. Nader was a key figure in the Trump-Russia scandal. According to special counsel Robert Mueller, he helped arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian emissaries.

  Mother Jones

Sounds like he played both sides.

The charges paint a picture of an effort by Nader to gain influence with Clinton’s supporters, and to hedge his bets by cultivating Trump’s team—all while reporting back to unnamed foreign masters. According to the indictment, in a July 19, 2016, WhatsApp message to an unidentified foreign official, Nader said he was “developing a steady, consistent and constructive relationship with both camps!” After Trump’s electoral victory, Nader appears to have hustled to ingratiate himself with the incoming administration.

[...]

But this week’s indictment leaves a key question unanswered: Was Nader also the source of a $1 million donation from one of the defendants to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee?

[...]

According to the indictment, Nader conspired with Andy Khawaja, the CEO of an embattled online payment processing company, in a plot to provide massive campaign donations to Democratic groups. Khawaja allegedly made the contributions in his own name and through his wife and his company, and was then reimbursed by Nader.

[...]

While arranging the payments to Democratic groups, Nader “reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence,” prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday. They didn’t name that government. According to the Mueller report, Nader “worked for the United Arab Emirates royal court” in 2016. The report described Nader’s efforts during the presidential transition period to help the UAE set up meetings between the Trump team and Russia.

[...]

According to emails obtained by Mother Jones, Khawaja brought Nader as his guest to [Trump's] inauguration. In a form apparently sent to the inaugural committee, Khawaja described Nader as an “advisor” to [Khawaja's company] Allied Wallet.

In interviews and electronic messages prior to his indictment, Khawaja denied that Nader was his guest at the inauguration or an adviser to Allied Wallet. Any email suggesting this, he said, “is inaccurate. It’s bullshit. It’s fabricated.”

Tuesday’s indictment contradicted this denial, alleging that Nader had indeed attended the inauguration as Khawaja’s guest. Prosecutors also charged Khawaja with obstructing the investigation.

[...]

Khawaja says Nader had nothing to do with it. “Nader did not give me money for [the] inauguration,” he told Mother Jones Thursday. He also disputed the charges in the indictment. “Nader never gave me any money to give to [Hillary Clinton],” he said, asserting that Nader had instead simply done business with his company.

“Nader was a Trump supporter and never cared about Hillary or her campaign,” said Khawaja. “This is a hit job to make Democrats look bad.”

[...]

[Nader's] attendance at the inauguration came as part of an effort in which he developed relationships with Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy, and Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The indictment also detailed WhatsApp messages in which Khawaja and Nader allegedly discussed plans for Nader to reimburse Khawaja for his donations, in part through allegedly fake invoices Khawaja sent Nader.

[...]

When Khawaja pressed Nader in early July 2016 about the status of a reimbursement, Nader responded, “I shall pursue it vigorously!” Nader also told Khawaja that he was conferring with someone he called “HH.”

[...]

According to the Mueller report and other public sources, Nader in 2016 was in direct contact with Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the effective ruler of the UAE. Bin Zayed, known as MBZ, is referred to by many Emirates as “High Highness.” Press officials at the Emirati embassy in Washington, DC, did not respond to questions about whether the UAE is the unidentified foreign government referenced in the indictment.

[...]

Khawaja’s indictment makes him the second major Trump inaugural donor to be charged with illegally funneling earlier political donations to Democrats. In October, Imaad Zuberi, a California businessman who gave $900,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, agreed to plead guilty in connection with a nearly 10-year scheme in which he solicited money from foreign people and firms to donate to US political campaigns on the foreigners’ behalf.

[...]

[T]he statute that prohibits making a contribution in the name of another person to a political campaign does not apply to inaugural committees. Thirteen of the charges in Tuesday’s indictment relate to violations of that law.

[...]

The charges against Khawaja and Nader come amid other legal problems for both men. Nader, who was convicted in the Czech Republic in 2003 of sexually abusing minors, was arrested in June in New York. He remains jailed on charges that include child pornography and transporting a 14-year-old child for sexual activity. On Monday, six attorneys representing Nader in that case filed motions to withdraw as his counsel.

[...]

In May, Khawaja and his firm agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $110 million to settle charges that the company knowingly processed payments for online firms—including sketchy debt collection and pornography outfits—that were engaged in fraud.

[...]

Khawaja, who did not respond to questions about this probe, told Mother Jones in October that he had retained a high-powered legal team that includes former FBI director Louis Freeh [...] Robert Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz, a prominent defender of Trump, said Tuesday that he cannot comment on who he represents. Freeh and Shapiro did not respond to inquires.

Khawaja has said he has been traveling abroad for the past few months. In message sent Thursday, he said that he is in China but plans to return to the US to “deal with these fake accusations.” In a phone call in October, speaking from what he said was Tokyo, he was defiant. He argued that the allegations against him were manufactured by unnamed Republican operatives worried about his support for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Khawaja said his lawyers will “come down on” his critics “like the hand of God.” “Tell them Andy is not gonna stop supporting Democrats,” he said. “He’s not gonna stop supporting Joe Biden. And let them go fuck themselves.”

Yeah, he's not coming back to the US.

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

Hello, Nancy?

Impeach the motherfucker.

Moscow Mitch

Another reason Mitch won't bring up election protection bills for a vote...

Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.

The disclosure comes as Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review Rusal’s $200 million investment in the Kentucky project — concerned that the mill will supply the Defense Department — and as McConnell weathers criticism for helping block a congressional effort to stop the investment.

The Russian firm was only able to make the investment after it won sanctions relief from penalties the Treasury Department initially imposed in April 2018 on Rusal and other companies owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally accused of facilitating Moscow’s nefarious activities, such as seizing land in Ukraine, supplying arms for the Syrian regime and meddling in other countries’ elections.

[...]

McConnell told reporters in May that his support for lifting the sanctions was “completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state.”

  Politico

That's a good one.

“A number of us supported the administration,” McConnell said. “That position ended up prevailing. I think the administration made a recommendation without political consideration. And that’s — that was how I voted — the reason I voted the way I did.”

[...]

It’s unclear whether the former staffers — Hunter Bates, a former McConnell chief of staff, and Brendan Dunn, who advised the Kentucky Republican on tax, trade and financial services matters before heading to K Street last year — directly lobbied McConnell’s office over the aluminum mill project.

Depends on what your definition of "lobby" is.

In Washington, it’s common for congressional staffers to lobby their former colleagues.

[...]

[T]he law and lobbying firm where Bates and Dunn work, and McConnell’s office declined to comment on whether they had done so.

[...]

Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation of the project by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency body that can recommend the cancellation of foreign financial arrangements with U.S. firms over national security concerns.

Who heads that one? Oh, gee. It's under the Treasury Department.

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

FBI Director Wray speaks

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that while the US had not seen a "material impact on election infrastructure" from foreign adversaries in the recent midterm elections, foreign influence campaigns pitting Americans against each other on social media have continued "virtually unabated."

  CNN

It doesn't take foreign adversaries to get Americans to attack each other on social media.

Wray, speaking at the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, said the FBI has been working closely with the social media companies to counter the threat, and that the cooperation had been a "great example of how the government and private sector can work together in a common defense."

He said the wider cyber threats facing the United States are "unlike anything we have had in our lifetimes," citing an uptick in threats from Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.

[...]

He fingered China, saying that when he became director, "The thing that most shocked me was the breath and the depth and the scale of the Chinese counterintelligence threat."

Hey, CNN? I'm pretty sure he didn't say "breath".

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

Tony Fabrizio and the Russian connection

Tony Fabrizio was honored as Pollster of the Year for his work on Trump’s 2016 presidential election.

As chief pollster, he was hired to assist Trump’s team and the RNC on the modeling, polling and targeting of specific voter groups.

[...]

“[His firm, Fabrizio, Lee & Associates] FLA was able to identify with precision the voters who wanted change but were not supporting Mr. Trump. Knowing their beliefs, what messages most strongly resonated with them, and their media consumption habits, FLA advised the leadership teams in each key state how best to reach this hugely important cohort of voters,” according to a campaign brief posted to its website.

[...]

“We knew the 14 million people we needed to win 270. We targeted those in over 1,000 different universes with exactly the things that mattered to them."

[...]

They also ran three parallel online voter suppression campaigns specifically targeting “idealistic white liberals, young women and African Americans.”

[...]

Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica developer, admitted to Congress that Steve Bannon had “directed the political data consultancy to conduct research on suppressing Black voters, among other groups.”

Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) appears to have run a similar operation. It was posting comparable divisive messaging on the same media platforms to the same Trump targets during similar time periods.

  Medium

What's legally known as conspiracy? Campaign coordination with a foreign source is illegal at any rate.

Paul Manafort worked for Trump’s campaign from March to August 2016. Before joining the campaign, he recruited Fabrizio. That spring, Manafort and Rick Gates, his business partner and Trump deputy campaign manager, are alleged to have shared the campaign’s polling data with Konstantin V. Kilimnik, Manafort’s protegé with ties to Russian intelligence.

[...]

Fabrizio claims he had no knowledge of Trump polling data being given to the Russians. It’s not the first time he and Manafort have been associated with Russian officials and elections. Manafort previously employed Fabrizio for Viktor Yanukovych and Ukraine’s Party of Regions campaigns in 2012–2013.

[...]

[Manafort] secretly issued orders to rewrite Wikipedia entries to smear any Yanukovych opponents. He ran multiple social media campaigns aimed at promoting Yanukovych to audiences in Europe and the US.

And he also helped set up the ­Brussels-based European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, which contracted with U.S. lobbying firms Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group to promote Yanukovych in D.C. while obscuring Manafort’s role. Fabrizio is also a senior counselor at Mercury Public Affairs [...] currently being investigated by federal prosecutors for the legal and lobbying work they did in 2012 and 2013 for Manafort and Yanukovych.

[...]

Fabrizio was interviewed by Mueller’s team a year ago and reportedly asked about the polling work he’d done for Manafort in Ukraine. He was also questioned about how that polling data had been shared with Russians Konstantin Kilimnik, Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov.

[...]

His list of clients includes a number of politicians with ties to Russia. Before joining Trump, he was Rand Paul’s pollster on his 2016 presidential campaign. By that time, Paul was already a known friend to Russian officials.

[...]

Fabrizio was also a pollster and senior advisor to Ron DeSantis on his 2015 Florida Senate campaign. He’d previously worked on former FL Gov. Rick Scott’s two successful governor races and for the GOP on former WI Gov. Scott Walker’s 2014 reelection campaign.

A Walker PAC received $1.1 million in funding from Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik during that campaign. Matt Oczkowski, who worked as Walker’s digital director at the time, later became head of product for Cambridge Analytica.

And, don't forget about our old friend Mitch McConnell.

Fabrizio’s also done strategy and polling work for Rick Perry, Mitch McConnell, the NRA, the RNC, Amway (DeVos family), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and at least five different casino or gaming entities, including Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts.

What a list.

Flynn hearing odds and ends

That indictment  was for illegal lobbying on behalf of Turkey.






About the Flynn memo suggesting the FBI tricked him into lying and not warning him that was illegal:










You have to wonder why the lawyer thought that would be a good ploy in the first place.  Also I wonder how they came up with it.  Was that before or after or in concert with Alan Dershowitz and Fox News hosts started whining about Flynn being entrapped?  Are Flynn's lawyers consulting/coordinating with Sean Hannity and/or Trump and Rudy?








And would this be cause for a suit against his lawyers so that Flynn could recoup his attorneys' fees?










Maybe some day when the whole shebang is over they'll explain it.









Sadly, it won't give her pause to question herself - nor will it give Trumpettes pause.  These people have no shame and they can't be swayed by logic or the truth.




In other words, a perfect fit for the Trump cabal.



That's a pretty clear hint to the Flynn team.








And, yet, I have to wonder why the judge gave Flynn such a break as he did by several times pressing him about possibly postponing his sentence.  Flynn got a sweet deal from Mueller, and now a huge help from Judge Sullivan.  Don't try this at home.

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

If the law is in the way...

Another reason to pack the courts.

Ravi Singh, an Illinois-based political consultant and self-proclaimed “campaign guru,” is challenging a decades-old federal law barring foreign involvement in U.S. elections. He calls the provision unconstitutional, insisting Congress can’t regulate the role played by non-citizens in state and local elections.

  Politico

He's going to lose that one. But if the GOP has its way (as it normally does), the case could be pushed up to the Supreme Court where Trump has his lackies.

Legal scholars say the appeal represents a serious challenge to the statute.

I really find that hard to believe. Can states and local governments simply do whatever the hell they want? Are they not bound by any standard federal regulations? How are we one country if that's not the case?

At a time when the special prosecutor’s legitimacy is being attacked on various grounds, a ruling in Singh's favor would create even more uncertainty around the broader effort to shield U.S. elections from foreign influence.

“It shows there is a lot of untested ground surrounding the foreign national prohibition,” said Joe Birkenstock, a former Democratic National Committee general counsel now with law firm Sandler Reiff.

Singh is appealing a 2016 federal conviction on charges a Mexican real estate developer secretly footed the bill for a quarter million dollars-worth of digital campaign consulting that Singh provided two San Diego mayoral candidates.

The source of the funds for Singh’s campaign work, businessman Jose Azano, has homes in San Diego and Miami and spent much of his time in the U.S., but is not an American citizen or green card holder. He was allegedly hoping to gain influence in a bid to redevelop San Diego's waterfront.

That not only sounds like foreign contribution, but bribery.

[V]arious localities including Takoma Park, Maryland, San Francisco and Chicago allow non-citizens to vote in local elections of some sort. However, under the broad federal ban, it is illegal for at least some of those foreigners to donate to candidates in those same races.

That sounds like the case for adjudication. And, indeed, it does sound like a place to chip away.

“If the eligibility of foreign nationals to vote in state and local elections is exclusively a state/local matter, it stands to reason that the eligibility of foreign nationals to make contributions related to such elections is also exclusively a state/local matter,” Singh’s defense wrote.

I can't argue with that.

“We’ve forgotten the last 100 or more years of our history — how foreign nationals participated so actively in the life of our country. … That’s a very important tradition,” Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, told POLITICO. “Most states, some even in their constitutions, permitted foreign nationals to vote. It’s a lot richer history than I was aware.”

No shit. This is not, I think, a good thing. Maybe I'll have to back off on my assessment of the likely outcome of this suit. After all, it's now legal to consider corporations as individuals.

This country is going down.

The Justice Department has a blunt response to that argument.

“It does not matter that some local jurisdictions may permit aliens to vote,” prosecutors wrote in a brief defending the conviction. “That is a matter of grace, not constitutional requirement.”

A matter of grace? That's a weird legal argument.

“I think there’s actually a pretty strong federalism issue here and it’s super interesting,” said Temple University Law Professor Peter Spiro, a leading expert on citizenship and dual nationality. “If non-citizen voting is constitutionally acceptable, I’m not sure I see what the government’s rationale here is. … It’s hard to see the national security explanation when you’re talking about state and local elections, and once you take that off the table it just looks like a federal diktat in terms of how states define their own political community.”

Asked to rate the chance of Singh prevailing, Birkenstock said: “It’s above zero, but I still think it’s uphill. … It’s certainly not frivolous. I think they’re raising worthwhile challenges.”

Downhill fast.

The case.

This case arose out of Singh's 2016 conviction for helping a Mexican businessman funnel money to San Diego candidates. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a $10,000 fine last September. He was arrested in January 2014 and pled not guilty.

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

Wherever it leads

[ George] Nader [an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates] is now a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned Mr. Nader and have pressed witnesses for information about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to support Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

The investigators have also asked about Mr. Nader’s role in White House policymaking, those people said, suggesting that the special counsel investigation has broadened beyond Russian election meddling to include Emirati influence on the Trump administration. The focus on Mr. Nader could also prompt an examination of how money from multiple countries has flowed through and influenced Washington during the Trump era.

  NYT

White House for sale.

In one example of Mr. Nader’s influential connections, which has not been previously reported, last fall he received a detailed report from a top Trump fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, about a private meeting with the president in the Oval Office.

Mr. Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the United Arab Emirates, and he extolled to Mr. Trump a paramilitary force that his company was developing for the country.

[...]

Mr. Trump has closely allied himself with the Emiratis, endorsing their strong support for the new heir to the throne in Saudi Arabia, as well as their confrontational approaches toward Iran and their neighbor Qatar. In the case of Qatar, which is the host to a major United States military base, Mr. Trump’s endorsement of an Emirati- and Saudi-led blockade against that country has put him openly at odds with his secretary of state — as well as with years of American policy.

But, as we've recently been made aware, put him squarely in the favor of lining Jared Kushner's pockets.

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

UPDATE 3/6:

Nader is now said to be cooperating with the special counsel.

Why would he do this?

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met for more than three and a half hours of tough discussions with Turkish leaders in an attempt to ease increasing tensions with a key NATO ally -- but without a translator or policy aides.

The meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who translated, was highly unusual because Tillerson reportedly wasn't accompanied by an American translator, any aides or a note-taker.

  CNN

Same thing Trump did with Putin at the G20.

How can they get away with it?

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