Tag: Guccifer 2.0

An old friend — a former procuress from New York whom Mr. Stone has employed as an administrative worker — testified about him to the federal grand jury hearing evidence in the inquiry. Another old friend, a New York City radio host, has been subpoenaed to appear before the same grand jury. For months now, Mr. Stone, 65, has been a key focus of the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into whether any Trump associates worked with Russian operatives who were secretly trying to tip the election in Mr. Trump’s favor. And on Twitter, he seemed to correctly predict the release of emails — stolen by Russian hackers — sent and received by John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman. Image At least two campaign officials — Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and a foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos — were aware of the Russian government’s interest in assisting the Trump campaign and were eager to receive the help. Mr. Trump said nothing ever came of those efforts. Last year, Mr. Credico was identified as the intermediary between Mr. Stone and Mr. Assange of WikiLeaks. On Friday, Mr. Credico’s lawyer, Martin Stolar, said his client was scheduled to appear before the Russia grand jury on Sept. 7. In response, Mr. Stone said that Mr. Credico had never told him “what the source, content or scope of the WikiLeaks disclosures would be.” He also said that he “would urge Mr. Credico to simply tell the truth,” if he is compelled to testify. Mr. Stone’s aide, Andrew Miller, received his own subpoena to appear before the Russia grand jury this year, and his lawyers have been trying to quash it ever since.

The revelations provide more detail on the sophisticated assault on the US election in 2016, including the release of emails designed to damage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who has denied election meddling -- in Helsinki on Monday for a summit that includes a one-on-one meeting with only interpreters present. The Justice Department says the hacking targeted Clinton's campaign, Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with the intention to "release that information on the internet under the names DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 and through another entity." "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime," Rosenstein said at a news conference. "Today's charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result," Walters said in a statement. No Americans are involved. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent," he tweeted. "These Russian individuals did their work during the Obama years," Trump continued in a tweet later Saturday. Intelligence gathered by US officials captured some of the Russians accused in Friday's indictments congratulating each other and celebrating the success of their operation during the campaign, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The computer crimes the Russians face also accuse them of installing malware on Democratic campaign computers.

The political operative Roger Stone has admitted he is “probably” the Donald Trump associate cited in a grand jury indictment as communicating with Russians who attacked the US presidential election in 2016. Trump responds to Mueller indictments – by blaming Obama Read more Trump is defying calls to cancel a high stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday after a dozen Russian military intelligence officers were charged with hacking and leaking the emails of senior Democrats. On 15 August 2016, according to the indictment, Guccifer 2.0 wrote: “thank u for writing back … do u find anyt(h)ing interesting in the docs i posted?” Two days later, Guccifer 2.0 added: “please tell me if i can help u anyhow ... it would be a great pleasure to me.” In September, the Russians wrote to the person again and referred to a stolen Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) document posted online: “What do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.” The person responded: “(p)retty standard”. I am probably the person mentioned on the indictment … until there is a trial all claims remain unproven Roger Stone The indictment does not identify the person but Stone, a political consultant and friend of Trump for nearly four decades, told the Guardian via text message: “I am probably the person mentioned on the indictment. Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader in the House, said: “President Trump’s continued refusal to condemn the Russians’ attacks on our democracy, even after special counsel Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for interfering in the 2016 election, makes it clear that meeting with Putin would be both pointless and dangerous.” Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, said: “President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections.” The Republican senator John McCain, a frequent Trump critic, said the summit should be called off if Trump was not ready to warn Putin there is a “serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world”. He added: “If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward.” The White House said the summit would go ahead as planned. “The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” he tweeted from his golf resort in Scotland. “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?” Russian officials largely dismissed the indictment, saying the new evidence did not prove that Russian military intelligence was behind the attack on Democratic servers or that any hack even took place. Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Moscow, said in an interview a similar deal could let Trump declare victory in Helsinki and allow Russia to seek further concessions about the US role in Syria. In a tweet, he gave no hint that he was wavering over whether the Putin meeting should take place.