russia-investigation

President Trump criticized former president Barack Obama for his perceived lack of actions towards Russia interference in the 2016 election. "Obama was President up to, and beyond, the 2016 Election. So why didn’t he do something about Russian meddling?" Trump tweeted on Monday. Obama was President up to, and beyond, the 2016 Election. So why didn’t he do something about Russian meddling?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2018 This attempt to shift blame is a common Trump tactic. His current blame game comes just days after the Department of Justice announced Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian entities for allegedly interfering with the 2016 presidential election, according to CNN.  Trump went on to tweet about the Russia allegations over the weekend. The New York Times reports there is plenty evidence linking Trump's relationship with Russia.  I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018 If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018Blaming Obama for not doing enough, is not at all true. During his presidency, Obama issued a number of sanctions against Russia, expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and ordered two Russian compounds closed, according to The Hill. Even with this work, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff believes even more could have been done.Trump commented on the cosign and thanked Schiff. Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018 Trump has absolutely no...

There has been a major breakthrough in U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russian investigation: thirteen Russians have been charged with tampering with the U.S. 2016 election, the BBC reports. Three of the named individuals have been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud while five have been accused of aggravated identity theft. Three Russian entities were also identified, including the Internet Research Agency (known for its Russian trolls and inciting ads on social media), according to Bloomberg.According to The Hill, other individual charges include creating false U.S. personas, posing as U.S. citizens and U.S. identity theft. "Defendants' operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump campaign") and disparaging Hillary Clinton," the indictment reads.“From in or around 2014 to the present, Defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016,” it continues. "Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities."Although this news is a breakthrough in the investigation, it is believed that this does not mark the investigation's conclusion. The special counsel still hopes to interview the president, and more charges could be on the...

According to Kansas City.com, Russians were behind tweets that falsely claimed the KKK were marching on the University of Missouri's campus in 2015.Russian actors using social media to sow discord in the U.S. have been an issue for a hot minute; most notably for inciting fear and rage amongst the black community. Several months ago, it was discovered that popular Black Twitter accounts were actually fake and linked to Russian accounts.  In 2015, Mizzou made headlines when its black students came together to fight against racism on campus--an issue which  may have contributed to a sharp decline in enrollment. Now, a new report shows that Russian bots are to blame for stoking fear amongst students. During the heated 2015 protests, Twitter user @Fanfan1911 tweeted, “The cops are marching with the KKK! They beat up my little brother! Watch out!” A photo of a black boy with a bruised face was to attached to the tweet. The tweet was inconsistent with the campus event and the attached photo was actually from an Ohio incident, involving police a year prior.70 bots retweeted the post and boosted the false message.“The plot was smoothly executed and evaded algorithms Twitter designed to catch bot tweeting, mainly because the Mizzou hashtag was being used outside of the attack,” wrote Lt. Col. Jarred Prier, in his article about information-age warfare published in Strategic Studies Quarterly last year. “The narrative was set as the trend was hijacked, and the hoax was underway.”Prier noted that these tactics were similar to those used during the Cold War, but that their effectiveness has been enhanced by the advanced technology of social media. “The most common sub-category of active measures is 'dezinformatsiya' or disinformation: feverish, if believable lies cooked up by Moscow Centre, and planted in friendly media outlets to make democratic nations look sinister,” said Russian Federation analyst Michael Weiss.After successfully causing race-based distress at Mizzou, @Fanfan1911 went on to spread anti-Syrian propaganda in German that targeted German-language bots before switching back to English to spread pro-Trump far-right...

President Donald Trump has denied reports that he tried to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last June, The Hill reports.Thursday night, The New York Times published a report that found President Trump sought to fire Mueller, claiming that the special counsel was unfit for duty due to conflicts of interest.Mueller, is of course, currently leading an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, with a special focus on whether or not the Trump campaign knew about or aided Russian interference. The Times found that Trump ended up deciding not to fire Mueller when White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit, hoping to use the threat to convince the president that firing Mueller would make him look guilty.“Fake news. Fake news," Trump said of the report from Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum. "Typical New York Times. Fake stories." Trump told reporters on Friday.Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer, declined to comment on whether the NYT report was true or not.“We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process,” said Cobb.New York Magazine reports that Fox News anchor Sean Hannity also initially dismissed the Times report as spurious live on air, saying, “The New York Times is trying to distract you. How many times has the New York Times and others gotten it wrong?”However, after Fox News researchers confirmed the report, Hannity walked back his comments later on his show, “We have sources tonight confirming ... that yeah, Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. Does he not he not have the right to raise those questions?"Many on the Hill speculated this week that Mueller's probe is winding down; the special counsel reportedly want to interview the president very soon. On Wednesday, Trump stated that he'd be willing to be interviewed by Mueller under oath. But, according to CNN, Trump's attorney John Dowd shut that plan down — or at the very least, delayed it. "I will make the decision on whether the president talks to the special counsel," Dowd said. "I have not made any decision yet....

Investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election has found that Russian agents used social media to sow dischord and to distribute propaganda. It is also known that the president's son arranged a meeting with a high-powered Russian lawyer. But so far, exactly how far Robert Mueller's investigation about Trump's ties to Russia has gone remained a mystery.Until now.According to the New York Times, Trump's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about having conversations with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak regarding the administration's foreign policy plans. This is a huge deal because Flynn is the first White House senior official to cooperate in connection with Mueller's election fraud investigation.WATCH: Michael Flynn leaves court after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI https://t.co/Yh6lBZBWg7 pic.twitter.com/qO6bi0Yjj7— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 1, 2017“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” said Flynn shortly after he submitted his guilty plea. “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”Flynn's plea agreement included documents confirming that he held foreign policy conversations that involved talk of getting rid of the U.S.' sanctions against Russia. Flynn also admitted that he received direction on how to discuss foreign policy from “very senior member” of Trump's presidential transition team, and that multiple members of the transition team knew that Flynn included talk of sanctions in his meetings.In particular, court documents show that Flynn called Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort “to discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador about the U.S. sanctions” with an unammed high-level official.While the document doesn't name names, we do know that Vice President Mike Pence led the president's transition team, and top aides included Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the first chief of staff Reince Priebus and K.T. McFarland, who now serves as the ambassador to Singapore. The documents didn't disclose what Trump knew about Flynn's discussions.Trump and top aides did say earlier this year, however that they didn't know about Flynn speaking with the Russians, and that they definitely didn't know anything about him discussing sanctions.Flynn resigned from his post with the Trump administration earlier this year; this resignation played a part in the firing of FBI director James Comey. After Flynn quit, Trump reportedly approached Comey and said to him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go."For now, prosecutors plan to let Flynn go. Although he has pleaded guilty, prosecutors said that they plan to delay Flynn's sentencing, which some feel is evidence Mueller plans to use him to get more information about the Trump administration's dealings with Russia. Should he be convicted, Flynn faces a sentence of up to five years in prison.The White House, for its part, was quick to distance itself from Flynn, a figure Trump once called “a very good person.”  ”Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn,” said President Trump's lawyer Tyler...

The "impeach Trump" hype train has been moving for some time now. This week, talk of impeachment ended and steps towards impeachment began.Six Democratic members of the House of Representatives introduced five articles to impeach the president, accusing him of violating the Constitution, according to The Hill. The representatives behind the articles are: Steve Cohen (D-TN), Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), Al Green (D-TX), Marcia Fudge (D-OH), John Yarmuth (D-KY) and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Given the magnitude of the constitutional crisis, there’s no reason for delay," Cohen said, adding according to NBC News, "We have taken this action because of great concerns for the country and our Constitution and our national security and our democracy."What specifically do the representatives think Trump did wrong?First, Trump is being accused of obstructing justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey, which lawmakers believe was done to hinder the Russian probe investigation.Also, Trump is accused of violating the foreign emoluments clause for accepting gifts from foreign governments without the Congress' consent.The representatives also say Trump violated the domestic emoluments clause prohibiting him from profiting from his office. Lastly, he has been accused of undermining two U.S. central institutions in a manner that threatens our democracy: the court and the free press.Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), called for Trump's impeachment following the Comey firing, but he and may others who have called for impeachment, such as Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) haven't signed on to the current effort.However, Cohen said today that more lawmakers will join this concrete push for impeachment “immediately or soon thereafter.”The Republic National Committee (RNC) responded by calling this new venture a "baseless radical effort." “House Democrats lack a positive message, and are completely unwilling to work across the aisle, so instead they’ve decided to support a baseless radical effort that the vast majority of Americans disagree with," RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens said.Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the minority whip, believes the article of impeachment have been served prematurely. "Do we disagree with the policies? We do. But disagreeing with the policies is not enough to overturn an election, a free and fair election," Hoyer said shortly after Cohen's news conference. "There are a large number of Democrats that believe this president ought to be impeached, we have just a made a judgment that the facts aren’t there to pursue that."Cohen obviously disagrees, but doesn't hold any illusions of the matter going to a vote. "I don't expect the House Judiciary Committee, which is operated like a branch of the administration, to take up hearings," he said, according to CNN. Instead, he hopes to be granted briefings to outline the grievances contained in the articles.Gutiérrez said that no matter what does or does not happen, he felt he had a moral obligation to speak out."I see a crime and I have a responsibility to dial 911 immediately. I don't call and try to reach my consensus with all my neighbors and all my friends and those whose opinion I might seek out," Gutiérrez said.For his part, Cohen said he has no plans to stop or give up. "It's important that we not let the failure of the Republicans stop us from doing what is right."...

Having proven itself capable of taking out Russian agents, Facebook is now rolling out a plan it promises will stop revenge porn.All it needs from you, it says, are your nudes.The social media giant is piloting the program in Australia, and plans to test it in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. next, according to the Los Angeles Times.It works like this: you send Facebook your nudes, the company’s software has a look and then image matching algorithms will continuously comb the site to make sure that no images matching your nudes are posted.Facebook promises that your naked selfies will be safe with it; it has said that it will not store users’ photos on any of its servers. Instead, it will create a “digital footprint” of the images, and that footprint is what its image matching bots will use in their search.Now, the issue is, to get that digital footprint, Facebook requires that you first upload your nudes.It’s during this upload process that images become vulnerable to falling into the wrong hands, cybersecurity expert Lesley Carhart said.“They’re not storing a copy,” Carhart said, “But the image is still being transmitted and processed, leaving forensic evidence in memory and potentially on disk.”Australia’s commissioner of safety, Inman Grant, said users have little to worry about. “It would be like sending yourself your image in email, but obviously this is a much safer, secure end-to-end way of sending the image,” Grant said. “They’re not storing the image, they’re storing the link and using artificial intelligence and other photo matching technologies.”However, just because something hasn’t been stored on disk or on a server doesn’t mean that it is inaccessible, Carhart says.“My specialty is digital forensics, and I literally recover deleted images from computer systems all day — off disk and out of system memory. It’s not trivial to destroy all trace of files, including metadata and thumbnails.”Revenge porn is increasingly a problem around the world.In his country, Grant said, “We see many scenarios where maybe photos or videos were taken consensually at one point, but there was not any sort of consent to send the images or videos more broadly.”While there are many high-profile revenge porn cases, such as the Blac Chyna-Kardashian case that is currently making its way through the courts, there are also many cases that go unreported. It is believed that a full four percent of U.S. internet users are victims of revenge porn. The World Bank estimates that 78.2 percent of the U.S. population uses the internet, meaning that 10.9 million Americans (roughly the populations of New York City and Los Angeles combined) are revenge porn victims.It has also been found that 10 percent of women under 30 have had someone threaten to leak their nudes online.Because of these high numbers, Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who specializes in sexual privacy, welcomed Facebook's revenge porn plan."With its billions of users, Facebook is one place where many offenders aggress because they can maximize the harm by broadcasting the nonconsensual porn to those most close to the victim," Goldberg said. "So this is...

Everyone hates an annoying Internet troll, but in the age of technology they're literally everywhere. They're usually easy to spot because they generally have the same criteria. A profile picture of anything but themselves, very few followers and a feed of negativity on the same subjects. However, what happens when a troll becomes a popular Twitter account with positive content? Even the best of us may fall for the nonsense.The now-suspended Twitter account @Crystal1Johnson, claimed to be an African American woman, and mostly posted uplifting stories. Even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had fallen for the account, retweeting one of her positive stories. Now, the Daily Beast is reporting that @Crystal1Johnson was identified as a Kremlin-created account by the independent Russian news agency RBC, which published an exhaustive investigation on the subject earlier this month. Accounts were operated out of the Internet Research Agency, or “Russian troll factory.” “Johnson" claimed to be from Richmond, Va., and would infrequently tweet links to inflammatory stories about Hillary Clinton, making the account one of many that were pushing Russian propaganda on major American social media platforms during the 2016 election. Accounts like “Johnson’s” were frequently used to build up influence with unwitting actors by posting shareable stories, pictures and content, then weaponized for divisive political messages. She was one of many African Americans used to bash Hilary Clinton. Twitter has been somewhat lackluster in its role in the Russian investigation. However, in a Sept. 28 press release, Twitter claims to have shut down 201 accounts for violating rules involving misinformation in a blog post titled “Update: Russian Interference in 2016 US Election.”How convenient it must be to become a black person only when you're trying to sway us.  Unfortunately, this account is one of...

As we recently reported, Russian agents were buying all sorts of ads on Facebook in order to influence American public opinion ahead of the 2016 election.Your elected officials in Washington were not happy about this revelation at all. In order to do a little damage control, Facebook dispatched its COO Sheryl Sandberg to D.C. this week to meet with lawmakers and to try to make sure they weren't going to do anything rash that could damage her company.She stopped by to meet the CBC, who pointed out that Facebook has no black people on its board, and no black executives. Sandberg promised to fix that sometime in the "future."A press release sent out by the CBC after the meeting told everyone not to get their hopes up. Apparently "Facebook committed to changing” their lack of board diversity “two years ago” during a meeting with the CBC. And yet, it is no more diverse now than it was then.Now Recode reports that two members of the CBC that met with Sandberg this week, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Representative G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), are heading to her home turf next week in order to push Facebook, Twitter and other tech giants to do better than they have been with diversity, and to presumably help Apple diversity VP Denise Young Smith understand that "12 white, blue-eyed, blonde men" are not a diverse group of people (as she claimed earlier this week).Tech, as we have reported, is not very diverse. Facebook, for instance, has an engineering team that is one percent black. Overall, the company is three percent black.And sadly, a new study suggests that Silicon Valley is becoming less diverse, not more.“They have got to understand, they’ve got to move quicker,” Lee said to Recode, that "they" being the tech industry.The CBC is heading to Silicon Valley as part of its Tech2020 initiative, which hopes to increase the number of black tech employees at all levels, from start-up garage to corporate boardroom.When we spoke with Facebook earlier this year, the company's global director of diversity, Maxine Williams, suggested that one the reason tech isn't more diverse is because minorities don't have tech "as much on their radar as it is in other populations."She also seemed to place some of the blame for lack of diversity at the feet of minority populations, telling us, “The last thing we believe is people can’t, what we believe is they can. We just need to get them from that ‘I can’t’ to ‘I will.’”Lee doesn't subscribe to this school of thought.“I have many qualified constituents who would like to work in the tech sector,” Lee told Recode, “And systematically they are just denied these opportunities over and over again.”Too, Lee and Butterfield want to go to California because they still aren't satisfied with how social media companies have been handling the Russian advertising revelations. Of particular concern are the pages created by Russian agents that on the surface seemed to be pro-BLM pages, but that in reality worked to foment racial discord.Lee said that she wants to push tech companies into figuring "out a way to stop allowing these ads that really undermine our elections and create havoc, really, in communities by trying to create division and hostility and hatred.”The representative suggested that one way Facebook could make sure that ads don't "create division and hostility" is to have "African Americans and people of color analyzing” them, and plans to bring this up in her meetings next...