Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics

As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar with the effort and a report on its results.

The secret project, carried out on Facebook and Twitter, was likely too small to have a significant effect on the race, in which the Democratic candidate it was designed to help, Doug Jones, edged out the Republican, Roy S. Moore. But it was a sign that American political operatives of both parties have paid close attention to the Russian methods, which some fear may come to taint elections in the United States.

One participant in the Alabama project, Jonathon Morgan, is the chief executive of New Knowledge, a small cyber security firm that wrote a scathing account of Russia’s social media operations in the 2016 election that was released this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report says.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html

Senior Fincen Employee Arrested And Charged With Unlawfully Disclosing Sars

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards Illegally Photographed SARs and Other Sensitive Government Information and Transmitted Them To Reporter In Connection With Approximately 12 News Articles Over 1-Year Period

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Beginning in approximately October 2017, and lasting until the present, EDWARDS unlawfully disclosed numerous SARs to a reporter (“Reporter-1”), the substance of which were published over the course of approximately 12 articles by a news organization for which Reporter-1 wrote (“News Organization-1”). The illegally disclosed SARs pertained to, among other things, Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, the Russian Embassy, Mariia Butina, and Prevezon Alexander. EDWARDS had access to each of the pertinent SARs and saved them – along with thousands of other files containing sensitive government information – to a flash drive provided to her by FinCEN. She transmitted the SARs to Reporter-1 by means that included taking photographs of them and texting the photographs to Reporter-1 over an encrypted application. In addition to disseminating SARs to Reporter-1, EDWARDS sent Reporter-1 internal FinCEN emails appearing to relate to SARs or other information protected by the BSA, and FinCEN non-public memoranda, including Investigative Memos and Intelligence Assessments published by the FinCEN Intelligence Division, which contained confidential personal, business, and/or security threat assessments.

At the time of EDWARDS’s arrest, she was in possession of a flash drive appearing to be the flash drive on which she saved the unlawfully disclosed SARs, and a cellphone containing numerous communications over an encrypted application in which she transmitted SARs and other sensitive government information to Reporter-1.

More: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/senior-fincen-employee-arrested-and-charged-unlawfully-disclosing-sars

Republican operative who sought Clinton emails had ties to Michael Flynn going back to 2015: Report



*A Republican operative who sought out thousands of Hillary Clinton's deleted emails developed a relationship with President Trump's former national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as early as 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported.

*That operative, Peter Smith, told associates during the 2016 presidential campaign that he was using Flynn's connections to help him track down the emails, the paper reported.

*Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian government officials, and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller since then. He is due to be sentenced in December.

A longtime Republican operative who spent the final months of his life seeking out thousands of Hillary Clinton's deleted emails developed a relationship with President Donald Trump's former national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as early as 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

That operative, Peter Smith, told associates during the 2016 presidential campaign that he was using Flynn's connections to help him track down the emails, the paper reported. An investment banker and Republican fundraiser, Smith died in an apparent suicide in 2017.

Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian government officials, and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller since then. He is due to be sentenced in December.

Mueller, whose office declined to comment, is investigating whether the Trump campaign had improper contacts with the Russians. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly called the probe a "witch hunt."

The White House and an attorney for Flynn did not respond to a request for comment.

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/gop-operative-who-sought-clinton-emails-had-ties-to-michael-flynn.html

Late GOP Activist Peter W. Smith Met With Former Trump Adviser Michael Flynn in 2015, Sources Say

Source: Wall Street Journal

New email and interviews indicate the Republican operative who sought to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails had established a relationship with Mr. Flynn

This tweet is not accurate. Committee Republicans must correct it. See our letter here:
https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin/status/1047592548351574016

Nowhere in any of these six FBI reports, which the committee has reviewed on a bipartisan basis, was there ever a whiff of ANY issue – at all – related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse. 2/2
https://twitter.com/senjudiciary/status/1047156858081988608

FROM RUSSIA WITH... SANCTIONS RELIEF

Rand Paul Wants to Scrap Some U.S. Sanctions on Russia

The senator will introduce a bill to lift U.S. sanctions on Russian lawmakers if the Kremlin does the same for U.S. lawmakers, The Daily Beast has learned.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is introducing an amendment that would lift U.S. sanctions on Russian lawmakers, The Daily Beast has learned.

The amendment, which will be introduced at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on Wednesday, stipulates that existing U.S. sanctions on members of the Russian Federal Assembly will be lifted if Moscow agrees to lift its own sanctions on certain American members of Congress.

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Paul has made sanctions relief a cause of his since returning from Moscow last month. During that trip, which he took without any of his colleagues, Paul met with Russian officials and delivered a letter from President Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the White House later said was written at Paul’s request. In addition to meeting with former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, Paul had an hour-long sit-down with Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s legislature. During that meeting, according to Paul’s office, the senator invited Kosachev, who himself is banned from entering the U.S., to send Russian lawmakers to the U.S. Capitol to meet with their American counterparts. Paul’s amendment would be the first step toward allowing those Russians to travel to the U.S.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, paid for Paul’s trip.

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/rand-paul-wants-to-scrap-some-us-sanctions-on-russia

Source says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is currently on his way to the White House, expecting to be fired once he gets there.

https://twitter.com/MLevineReports/status/1044236086636146688

BREAKING: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to a source with direct knowledge.

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1044234364979216386

Scoop: Rod Rosenstein is resigning

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Per a second source with direct knowledge: “He’s expecting to be fired,” so plans to step down.

Background: Rosenstein talked last year invoking the 25th Amendment and wearing a wire during Trump meetings, the N.Y. Times' Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt reported last week. He denied both allegations.

https://www.axios.com/rod-rosenstein-resign-justice-department-trump-cf761f4c-fca3-4794-92d4-a56c9e32ff43.html