After reading the entire 25-page, non-confidential version of the CIA, FBI & NSA Russian Report on interference in the 2016 Election, three (3) things crossed my mind that I haven’t seen being discussed. Each of these things can be viewed as either legitimate concerns or tin foil hat theories. I personally don’t know which of these two extremes they are, so I will just put them forward and let you all decide for yourselves.
#1 Russian Hacking into Board of Elections’ Systems
On Page 3 of the Russian Report you will find the following:
“Russian Cyber Intrusions Into State and Local Electoral Boards. Russian intelligence accessed elements of multiple state or local electoral boards. Since early 2014, Russian intelligence has researched US electoral processes and related technology and equipment.
-DHS assesses that the types of systems we observed Russian actors targeting or compromising are not involved in vote tallying.“
What this says is disturbing in itself, but what it doesn’t say bothers me more. This is all they say about Russian hacking of BoE systems in the non-confidential version, which raises a number of questions in my mind.
First, it says Russia “researched US electoral processes and related technology and equipment.” So what did they do with the information garnered from this research? Did they obtain personal voter registration information (e.g., R, D or I, addresses, etc.) to help target their propaganda? Did they assess BoE voting equipment to evaluate its vulnerabilities to tampering? There are a whole realm of possibilities as to what they might have done with this information, but I don’t think simply putting it on a shelf to gather dust was one of them.
Second, it says “DHS assesses that the types of systems we observed Russian actors targeting or compromising are not involved in vote tallying.” So what specific types of systems where targeted and compromised? If they were not systems involved in “vote tallying”, were they systems involved in voter registration? In what ways were such systems compromised?
Third, on page i of the report it states: “When we use the term “we” it refers to an assessment by all three agencies.“ They use the term “we” frequently throughout the report to represent agreement between the 3 agencies (CIA, FBI & NSA) on numerous conclusions or assessments, and where there is not agreement on some point, the conclusions or assessments of the 3 agencies are listed separately (e.g., on pg. ii of the report where it states that Putin ordered the actions against Clinton, it say the CIA and FBI have high confidence in the assessment, and the NSA has moderate confidence). So in the report sentence above, why does it say “DHS assesses that [these BoE systems] are not involved in vote tallying”? Why is it only that DHS (the governing agency over the other three agencies) has made this assessment? Since the term “we” is not used here, are we (the readers) to infer that the CIA, FBI & NSA did not make an assessment regarding whether BoE voting systems were involved and left it up to DHS, or did they make different assessments that may appear in the confidential report?
Furthermore, if you remember the news report which said that back in September, President Obama had the CIA and FBI brief Congressional leaders on the Russian tampering asked their support to go public with the information (support that McConnell refused to provide) specifically so he could warn BoE’s around the Country of Russia’s tampering with their systems.
So is it a legitimate concern or tin foil hat to suspect that the Russians may have compromised BoE voter registration records and/or vote tallying systems leading up to the 2016 election?
#2 Comey’s Last Minute Clinton E-mail Disclosure
This is not about the report itself, just something that passed through my head as I was reading it. We all know what devastating impact the Comey letter to Congress had on the Clinton campaign. We also know that many of us were defending Comey as a non-partisan model civil servant back in July when he announced that there was no purposeful release or prosecutorial release of confidential information by Clinton, and then assailing him as a partisan hack in November who was deliberately trying to influence the election in Trump’s favor. It should also be noted that this report bares Comey’s signature and agreement on all points. But this is not about Comey, nor do I want to get into whether he is the devil or a Saint. Its about the numerous reports that there were partisan Agents within the FBI who were bent on withholding information related to the Russians helping Trump and eager to dig up and release as much politically damning information on Clinton as they could find. These Agents reportedly were going to go public with the “found” E-mails if Comey did not announce them and then accuse Comey of hiding them to help Clinton. If these reports are correct, then the question remains, Who are these FBI Agents? Are they simply over-zealous Republican partisans or something more? Could they be Russia/Putin friendly Agents?
So is it a legitimate concern or tin foil hat to suspect that we may have Russian, or at least Russian friendly Agents within the FBI?
#3 Trusting Trump with TOP SECRET Information
We all know that the Russian report presented to the public has a counterpart confidential version which I presume includes information on the identity of covert sources and on secret US cyber systems used to trace the cyber tampering back to Putin. This confidential report with all its secrets was of course given to President Obama. However, this same confidential report has also been given to President-Elect Trump. In fact, after January 20, Trump will not only have the top secret information in this report, he will also be privy to ALL of the top secret information that the DHS and its sub-agencies have on Russia (and Putin). So without any beating around the bush, let me GO THERE! Can I be the only one concerned about trusting Donald Trump with this top secret information on Russia (and Putin)? I have never felt this way before about any other President, Democrat or Republican, but I do about Trump. Providing such information to Putin is likely to severely compromise our cyber intelligence gathering and are ability to fend off future Russia cyber attacks. But it also could get covert sources and US Agents killed.
Would Trump be willingly give top secret information to Putin? I know it sounds crazy but besides his cozy relationship to the ruthless Dictator, his SoS pick Rex Tillerson is best buds with Putin. We also don’t know all the business ties Donald and Rex have with Russian Oligarchs that could be used by Putin to compromise them. Nor do we know what information Putin has on Trump that he could use to blackmail Trump. Putin could also get Trump to unknowingly provide such top secret information in one on one meetings. We all know that Trump is a person who moves his lips before engaging his (tiny) brain, and that’s without any alcohol involved.
But isn’t such sharing of top secret information with Russia grounds for Impeachment? Sure it is, but what investigative agency is going to discover and release incriminating evidence on Trump and where are we going to get enough House Republicans to draft Articles of Impeachment, let alone find enough Republican Senators for a Conviction.
So is it a legitimate concern or tin foil hat to think that Trump could provide Putin with Top Secret information?
So that’s it! Tell me what you think on each of these in your comments or in the poll below. Am I on track or crazy?
In closing, I have to tell you I started writing this diary several days ago, and have been doing it piecemeal as I have found time. So with regard to #3 above, I am now more concerned than ever over whether we can trust Mr. Trump, especially after reading this morning’s news in the APR.