On Halloween night, a curious story by Franklin Foer appeared on Slate: Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia? (dkos diary) This piece described how several unnamed internet sleuths discovered an alleged secret computer link between the Trump organization and the Russian Alfa Bank. (According to the article, this finding was part of an investigation to determine whether Trump’s campaign had been hacked.)
What happened next?
- The Slate article was followed by a series of tweets by the Clinton campaign echoing the article’s claims and questions. (dkos diary)
- Three hours later, an article in the NYT quoted the FBI as being skeptical of any Trump-Russia connection.
- This was followed in the next couple of days by a torrent of ‘debunking’ blogs and articles that sometimes offered scathing critiques of the original Slate article. Foer addressed a few of these in another Slate posting.
An unusual aspect of this story is that it came with an attached data set. I’m a scientist, an astronomer. I’m pretty skeptical of strong claims that don’t seem to be supported by data, and I’m also equally skeptical of sketchy counter-claims and rationalizations. I’ve also been around the block long enough to know that everyone, including ‘experts,’ need to be checked and re-checked. (Critical for space hardware, though I’m sure it is also true for the FBI.)
For that reason, I spent a couple of nights taking a closer look at the data, and I even posted about it elsewhere right before the election. It was an odd enough story that it didn’t warrant further scrutiny at a time when vote turnout seemed (and probably was) much more important.
However, a week later we’re faced with the harsh reality of a Trump White House, plans for weekends in NYC (Trump Tower) and Florida, and conversations w/ Putin. From this vantage point, the questions surrounding this story remain as important as ever.
In a series of diaries over the next week I’ll document what I learned analyzing patterns in the Trump server data. I’ll address some conclusions and concerns expressed by others. I’ll keep the snark to a minimum.
I make no guarantees. But I hope that some of you will find this exercise useful.
PS — For a preview you can find my previous posts on Medium, here, here and here, with the last post best for a more speculative summary. (The new posts will include additional findings.)
PPS — For an earlier dkos analysis with a different emphasis see: What is so D****d Weird About Trump’s Mail Server by dcnblues.