Mueller Accuses Russians of Pro-Sanders, Anti-Clinton Meddling
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiled the details of a widespread and coordinated campaign by Russians to influence the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump, delivering on his initial mandate by the Justice Department.
In an indictment disclosed in Washington on Friday, Mueller describes a sweeping, years-long, multimillion-dollar conspiracy by hundreds of Russians aimed at criticizing Hillary Clinton and supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump. He charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities and accused them of defrauding the U.S. government by interfering with the political process.
The Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, and the defendants began working in 2014 to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment. They used false personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with “unwitting individuals” associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
The documents point to a broader conspiracy beyond the pages of the indictment, saying the grand jury has heard about other people with whom the Russians allegedly conspired in their efforts.
Sanders silent on claim that Russians backed him in 2016
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declined to directly address Friday's revelation that Russian actors sought to boost his presidential primary campaign and sink Hillary Clinton's in 2016, instead insisting that the special counsel’s investigation proceed unimpeded.
“It has been clear to everyone (except Donald Trump) that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 elections and intends to be involved in the 2018 elections. It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs,” Sanders said in a statement. “It is absolutely imperative that the Mueller investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the Trump administration or Congress.”
Sanders’ urging that special counsel Robert Mueller be protected echoes the concerns of Democrats across Capitol Hill.
The independent senator’s statement came shortly after Mueller indicted 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities for helping the Kremlin interfere in the last presidential election starting as early as 2014.
Did they back Sanders because they thought he would lose against Trump or because they preferred his less hawkish foreign policy?
Either way, it's hardly his fault.
Brody Myers
Indictments? Holla Forums kept telling me there was no evidence though.
Cameron Miller
Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein all appear to have been helped by Russian election interference
Friday afternoon, the Justice Department released an indictment that’s part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The indictment outlines the lengths Russia went to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton — including by supporting Bernie Sanders (and, later, Jill Stein).
The Russian operations on social media were meant to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton and other candidates, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And they were supposed to support Sanders and Trump.
“Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them),” they were directed, according to the indictment.
This was because the Russians involved really didn’t like Hillary Clinton.
The latter. They were "anybody but Hillary" because they know she would have been the hardest on sanctions, Trump being the lightest on the as we have seen play out.
Camden Stewart
Whelp, if "muh spoilers" didn't already ruin any prospect of an American third party, "muh Russians" certainly will.
Fuck everything.
Makes sense. They do seem to have made the right call for their interests.
Kayden Richardson
Good to hear the Russians are still trying to help leftists in America.
Tyler Ross
Check /leftpol/, they are all eating this shit up and are spooked by it >>>/leftpol/26172
Thomas Harris
It's just one guy spamming the thread. Everyone else is making fun of him. You can tell by his posting style.
Neither. They wanted to sow chaos in the political system. It was actually a Texas based grassroots that told them to support Sanders and Trump.
Dylan Hernandez
Nothing surprising here. Russians/China support both extreme sides to produce maximum chaos in enemy countries.
David Stewart
Clearly cointelpro.
Colton Lopez
That's true, but they also didn't want Hillary elected. Putin fucking hates Hillary.
Jeremiah Peterson
Neither Russia nor China have any material interest in American political chaos. They are both highly dependent on American finance capital at the moment.
Andrew Edwards
Fake news. Of course Russia tries to influence the election. so does Saudi Arabia, or Israel, much more effectively. the original claim was that there was knowing collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents, not that Russia would try to exert influence an sich - that was always a given.
It's just red baiting.
Mason Rodriguez
That crap about Sanders vote on sanctions is bullshit.
Leo Watson
So it was not fake news at all.
Hudson Miller
There is literally nothing wrong with tearing the US apart from within.
Evan Morris
This is not about your material memes but survial of russian/chinese people.
Blake Moore
USA backed Yeltsin in roughly the same way but much more forcefully.
Kayden Reyes
You imbecile do you even read. The charge at the outset was that there was collusion. This has not been proven. We've know about troll farms fro years, it's why we have it as a word, it is not some grand revelation. To hype it as such is fake news, and the aim is red baiting.
Eli Adams
Everything is material. Anyone who thinks they are acting on behalf of some noble cause completely unrelated to their material interests is a total SLAVE to said material interests.
Gavin Hill
where's the evidence?
Aaron Collins
It's overwhelming. A simple Google search should bring up thousands of results.
Christopher Lee
It is in the russian material interest that he and his family stays alive. Your ideological memes will always come second to that.
Julian Butler
What the actual fuck are you talking about? Putin is at no risk of being killed right now.
Bentley Cox
You really have no idea of modern geopolitics?
Brandon Hernandez
Nah that was just a word Congress and the media used. "Collusion" isn't even a crime or a charge that can be made. Intelligence never uses that word. The real issue here is that politicians have been compromised by Russians and are susceptible to blackmail or influence. This includes crimes like money laundering, which if you look at Mueller's team, these are exactly the crimes they are looking at. If you go back and watch Sally Yates testimony from last year you will know exactly what this investigation is all about. "Collusion" is just used for theater.
Juan Robinson
Geopolitics is different than wanting a specific political leader assassinated.
The US has geopolitical conflicts with Russia, but killing Putin wouldn't solve those. It could very well make them worse, though.
Jack Anderson
Okay, so there was none and it was just a bunch of Russian dudes saying no-no stuff about Hillary? Glad we cleared that out. Wait, what? So there was collusion? You are contradicting yourself in your own post. Either way, you need to provide evidence.
Kayden Powell
We are talking about alot more prople than a single personn or a million people or ten million people.
Connor Cruz
...
Ayden Murphy
Didn't mean to green text
Hunter Miller
I've met several people now, on social media, on imageboards, even on fucking YikYak who are obsessed about this, it's always the same accounts digging up the newest hitpiece about this with a "TOLD YOU SO" shtick. Since it's so bizarre I'm starting to think these guys are seriously shills. Like, anywhere where you try to talk about this there is always one guy right away whose neurotically collected all the news articles and read all the reports to really hammer this home.
Charles Rivera
None of that is in today's "revelations". You are still fantasizing about the pee tape I see. The truth is that this here, the troll farms, was it. This is the best they could do. They've blown their wad. And all that came out were stale platitudes. And you still cling to fantasies like the pathetic liberal you are.
Kayden Roberts
When you say they are compromised, it means they have been personally involved in this. But as far as we know, there have only been social media accounts which expressed support for Sanders and Trump, but no personal involvement - that's what I mean by evidence. Do you have any?
Christopher Phillips
I doubt this will be the end of it.
Hunter Sullivan
Donald Trump accepts loans loans and laundered money for Russian oligarchs. He is in debt to them and is susceptible to blackmail because of this. These oligarchs can reveal his crimes if they want to. Therefore, he is compromised.
We know Trump gets all of his money from Russia. He is in debt and an asset to Russia. This is common knowledge and you can google the proof.
Adam Wood
EVERYONE BUT CLINTON WAS A RUSSIAN PLANT ALL ALONG!
t. demotards
Lincoln Miller
...
Andrew Williams
Russia pushing certain candidates =/= plants
Elijah Hall
...
Dylan Walker
How have you convinced yourself that this is all they have? They've been pretty clear that the investigation is still ongoing.
Jayden Baker
Again, not what was in the "revelation". Stop taking your fantasy for reality.
Cameron Reed
They are making all this fanfare over a nothingburger for a reason. The investigation is not on a time limit, they could have quietly kept on searching for the real crimes. But no, they come out with the big media drums over this fart in a bottle. I think I counted five articles on the Atlantic alone. They are trying to spin the best they could come up with into a big deal. But it is all spin, aimed at stirring Russophobia.
Zachary Reyes
What is "the revelation"? The indictments today? This is just a piece of the investigation. Are you saying Trump doesn't get all of his money from Russia? Are you saying Trump's golf courses, which have shown to not make any profit, keep getting money poured into them from Russia because they aren't laundering money?
Benjamin Ross
Absolute state of American politics
Kevin Ortiz
The burden of proof is on the accuser nitwit. Making shit up and expecting other to disprove it is highly illogical.
Grayson Gomez
So you didn't answer. Does Trump not get all of his loans from Russia? Do you think Russia pours all that money into his golf courses because it's a good investment? You can come to the conclusion Russia launders money through Trump's businesses using deductive reasoning.
Noah Anderson
It's called capitalism you moron. Clinton's shenanigans are financed by American porky, Zionist porky, and Saudi-Arabian porky. Why would I suddenly call it the end of the world when Trump had dealings with Russian porky?
Hunter Richardson
Again: Why the fuck does it matter? Just because someone is Russian doesn't make him inherently evil
Nolan Mitchell
Read again
Grayson Harris
It actually was, though. Republicans in Congress and the White House were coordinating to discredit the investigation and the FBI as a whole as a pretext for shutting the investigation down. If things dragged on for too long with no results, Mueller would have been removed and the investigation closed for being a "witch hunt". Yeah, they're making fanfare over this for a reason. It's realpolitik.
Levi Torres
To be fair everyone you just listed is also supportive of Trump. It’s a total cluster fuck
I agree with everyone here but this was a fucking awful gamble on part of the Russians. This was fucking retarded because they hid it terribly, so now it blows up in their faces and everyone is in a worse place with all this propaganda flying around
Russia shouldn’t have done this not because Clinton is defensible but because they’ve made this whole media bananza possible in the first place with this play.
It was a stupid idea no matter how big or small because there seems to be no consequence other than this tantrum by the American establishment now that it can play victim
Grayson Thompson
this tbh If you are just realizing that American politics are ruled by kleptocracy and robber barons, then your a little late to the show. Not that this excludes any side in the conflict, they should all hang.
Austin Watson
my heart bleeds
Justin Rivera
See e. g.
Parker Roberts
Kay, but you still see my point right? The investigation released this as a defensive measure against being discredited. Now it can carry on for a lot longer without anyone trying to pull the plug again. This is the tip of the iceberg, not the end of the show. My hope is that the FBI and Trump destroy each other.
Anthony Perry
Those don't contradict each other. They'll keep scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Carson Murphy
I found it strange when scrolling down that the overwhelming majority of the anti-Bernie Sanders tweets all shared a certain characteristic. I thought maybe it was just bots.
But then when you look at the voting demographics following the 2016 Democratic primaries it isn't really that surprising. Hillary had triple the black vote (75% vs. 25%) of Bernie.
The Democratic party has embedded itself deeply within the black community.
It's going to be decades before the majority of American blacks will even consider voting for anyone other than an established Democrat.
Jordan Butler
Step 1. Start Russia, Iran, and North Korea fear mongering among the population
Step 2. Insert idea that neoliberalism lost due to cheating and that Donald Trump is an illegitimate candidate
Step 3. Raise interest rates and crash the bubble economy
Step 4. Place blame on Trump and thereby Russia for this crisis and rally the population behind a new enemy.
Step 5. Vote Trump out of office and replace with a neoliberal head, who initiates WW3
Step 6. ?????
Step 7, Profit
Ian Clark
...
James Gonzalez
Trump's too retarded to be part of the plan. He's a shitty puppet cause he cant shut his mouth.
Jeremiah Lee
The Federal Government which has legalised it's own use of propaganda in US media, has made tweeting critical stories of politicians (unless you register with Uncle Sam a crime. Really make your yarmulke spin.
Mason Sanchez
Please don't be stupid.
Daniel Reyes
The economy is gonna crash regardless of Fed raising rates or not. Just doing so deliberately will allow them to have a fall guy, AKA Trump, and then chaos and mass anger created from the upcoming recession will allow them to make Russia the enemy and start war against them.
Jaxon Watson
Please /leftypol, support him in his fight against US imperialism.
Xavier Gray
Bernard "The Cuck" Sanders has no spine at all. Just admit that the Russian thing is bullshit but nope, gotta suck that bittersweet Democratic cock.