While we are all engrossed in the fast moving developments of the newly “presidential” PO**S fan hitting, digby at Hullabaloo asks the question-what did Paul Ryan know and when did he know it.
Prior to Sessions’ recusal on Thursday morning, Ryan held a press conference in which he blamed the Democrats for “setting their hair on fire” to prompt the press to cover the story. That was ridiculous. The press needs no prodding to cover this scandal; it’s as juicy as they get. Ryan also pooh-poohed the idea that Sessions had any obligation to remove himself from the investigation unless he was personally implicated and robotically repeated the contention that nobody had seen any evidence that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
That may be true, and presumably we’ll find out sooner or later. But it’s important to remember that DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, were not the only targets of hacking. Russian agents also allegedly hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That story has been scandalously undercovered, something for which Paul Ryan is no doubt very grateful.
emphasis mine
digby then reminds us of a New York Times article from early December about Democratic House candidates who were also targeted by Russian hackers and were ultimately defeated in their races.
The article, as she says, lays out in a big way the story of how the hacked material was used in Republican House campaigns. And some of it was scary. Nancy Pelosi, in an email stated
We take this troubling situation very seriously and have notified the appropriate authorities, including the F.B.I. and Sergeant-at-Arms.”
The article also states state troopers were sent out all over the country to the homes of House Democrats and they were told to immediately change all their personal contact information. Many received a series obscene texts, phone calls and emails. That however was just the start of the effort against candidates.
Hacked material was used in campaign advertisements in many races- “the hackers wanted to try to hurt Democrats at all levels of the party, from lesser known races in Florida to the leadership.”
By September, Guccifer 2.0 had expanded his releases to include documents related to House races in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina, working with individual political bloggers like Miscellany Blue in New Hampshire.
The NRCC knew about this. Letters were sent to them from Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, chairman of the DCCC. And Nancy Pelosi, according to the NYT article, sent a letter to Paul Ryan in September. Crickets for a response and “By October, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super PAC” tied to Mr. Ryan, had used the stolen material in another advertisement, attacking Mr. Garcia during the general election in Florida.”
But there was never anything quite like the 2016 election campaign, when a handful of Democratic House candidates became targets of a Russian influence operation that made thousands of pages of documents stolen by hackers from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington available to Florida reporters and bloggers.
...But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.
“This is not a traditional tit-for-tat on a partisan political campaign, where one side hits the other and then you respond,” said Kelly Ward, executive director of the D.C.C.C. “This is an attack by a foreign actor that had the intent to disrupt our election, and we were the victims of it.”
No, indeed, there has never been anything like the 2016 election campaign
as digby says-
I don’t think anyone believes it’s likely that Paul Ryan personally colluded with the Russians in this operation. The fact that many Republicans, some affiliated with the National Republican Congressional Committee and a group closely affiliated with Ryan, eagerly used it to win their campaigns is not surprising. But it is highly unlikely that Republican strategists or party officials with strong knowledge of the House campaigns didn’t collude with the hackers at some point, because it’s difficult to believe that Russians would have which House races to target without some help from people with expertise concerning the 2016 map.
Republican congressional leaders must be thanking their lucky stars daily that the Trump administration is such a scandal-ridden Dumpster fire. If things ever calm down in the White House, somebody might just turn his or her attention to the question of what Paul Ryan knew and when.
emphasis mine
The NYT article is a must (re)read. Absolutely.
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