From Rachel Maddow & team with Joy-Ann Reid at the helm is this report out yesterday:
Published on Dec 28, 2017
It appears that Mueller is now expanding the investigation into the republicans in congress along with various GOP operatives to determine the extent that the targeting of Russia hacked / stolen data (Guccifer 2.0 eg.) that wound up in republican tv commercials and on both twitter and face-book was made possible by that help in disseminating the stolen (hacked) data.
Several key down ballot races were targeted
At some point the Russian hacking campaign was discovered. Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to republican House speaker, Paul Ryan, requesting that republican congress Not use the data stolen from DNC and individuals.
Paul Ryan did not respond to Nancy Pelosi’s letter. No republican politician responded.
Some of the hacked material made it into Paul Ryan’s campaign advertisements.
In the last few weeks, prosecutors have begun questioning republican national committee staffers about the party’s digital operation that worked with the Trump campaign to target voters in key swing states.
Experts have posited that the granular information needed in targeting voters in key races in swing states was information that the Russian hacking operations would have sought to be most effective
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Here is a partial transcript with analysis from Natasha Bertrand, who has done extension research this past year and a half (@ minute 7:45 of video segment):
Joy-Ann Reid:
“what can you tell us about the probe into whether the RNC’s data targeting down-ballot also somehow intersected with the Russians.
Natasha Bertrand:
“right, so the RNC essentially hired three data firms to help the Trump campaign collect voter information from various states. Now the question that they are asking [the investigators] is whether or not the Russians and the Trump campaign and in turn the RNC actually coordinated to help each other with various aspects of this data collection operation.
“So the question now is really; ‘Did the Russians take the voter information that they hacked from the state election systems and feed it to the Trump campaign..and in return; Did the Trump campaign help the Russian target those political ads we saw on face-book and twitter during the election.”
Joy-Ann Reid:
“So it’s sort of a chicken and egg thing right, Russians wouldn't necessarily know which Wisconsin race, or which Florida race to target, that they would have needed some help. Is that the idea ?”
Natasha Bertrand:
“that is the speculation of analysts. They say that it would have been really difficult for Russians to have this kind of granular knowledge of American politics that would have allowed them to target these particular swing states and geographic districts that were particularly vulnerable to this kind of disinformation during the campaign.”
Joy-Ann Reid:
“You're an excellent reporter btw, you've been breaking so many scoops.
“This is a bit more of a meta question; because you’ve seen republicans being really aggressive about the Mueller investigation, when it comes to Donald Trump. But is there any reporting you can relay to us that suggests that perhaps the aggressiveness of somebody like Devin Nunes who was on the Trump transition executive committee, that maybe some of that aggressiveness also has to do with the probe going in the direction of the RNC ?”
Natasha Bertrand:
“its definitely possible. We haven't seen any reporting to that effect..yet. But it would surprise me if Mueller were not going around asking RNC staffers; ‘what did you know about the extent to which the RNC was utilizing this data that was stolen by the Russians last year’? ‘ particularly by Guccifer 2.0, who of course was particularly instrumental in hacking the DNC documents which the Trump campaign then used during the election its to sow doubt about her [HRC] candidacy. [...]
Joy-Ann Reid:
“how extensive was the interference in the down-ballot races?”
Natasha Bertrand:
“It was pretty extensive. Guccifer 2.0 released these documents to bloggers all across different states. And he was essentially trying to sow division and gets,.. this is a Russian hacker. They believe Guccifer 2.0 links to Russian intelligence. And these were released and used by the republican, the House intelligence, national republican congressional committee (NRCC), which is the House republican arm of the RNC.
“And they (hacked documents] were used in the ads, and ultimately it was weaponized. Many of these congressional candidates used the ads against their Democratic opponents. So ultimately whether or not it had a dramatic effect on the outcome of these races, ...the fact is, the republican took this information and used it, and that is really problematic."
[Paul Ryan (R) and his close ties to the Trump campaign is discussed next]
Joy-Ann Reid:
“is there any reporting that you can bring us that Paul Ryan may be asked any questions about his involvement and whether Guccifer 2.0 ever intersected with what he was doing?”
Natasha Bertrand:
" Well there definitely has been reporting to suggest that Paul Ryan may eventually be questioned about what he knew, because he did oversee the entire operation. And as you mentioned before he never responded to Democrats asking; ‘hey why are republican using all of this stolen information?. That’s a question that Mueller is going to want to ask him [Paul Ryan] Why he didn’t put a stop to it? ..
“Paul Ryan's spokeswoman has come out and said; ‘just because he hasn't answered this letter from the Dems does not mean he is for the Russian interference or republicans using this hacked material’ . But then again, you really have to question why he didn’t come out more strongly against this kind of conduct, and what it means for 2018”
‘Joy-Ann Reid:
“Was any of this material, lastly, used against republicans?"
Natasha Bertrand:
“No.. no. And that is another aspect of this that is very interesting, is that the RNC itself was hacked and none of the information was released”
(end of transcript)
The aggressive behavior from republicans aiming to shut down the Mueller #TrumpRussia investigation: smearing Robert Mueller; ridiculous contrived ‘scandals'; parallel "investigations" into the farcical; and the fact that many republican politician's campaign ads exploited stolen material hacked by Guciffer 2.0. indicate it is a very good thing that Robert Mueller is expanding the investigation into these republican politicians and operatives themselves — imo