Via Rawstory
A source close to the investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia says that there is now “specific concrete and corroborative evidence” that individuals within Trump’s immediate orbit coordinated with Russian intelligence operatives during the election.
The Guardian said on Thursday that the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has been watching the Trump camp since late 2015, having noticed suspicious “interactions” between Trump associates and well-known Russian agents.
This information had been gathered not just by GCHQ but also by SIGINT (Signals intelligence) from Germany, Estonia, Poland as well as Australia which is a member of the “Five Eyes” alliance, yet apparently the Americans weren’t “listening.”
The Guardian has been told the FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of contacts between Trump’s team and Moscow ahead of the US election. This was in part due to US law that prohibits US agencies from examining the private communications of American citizens without warrants. “They are trained not to do this,” the source stressed.
“It looks like the [US] agencies were asleep,” the source added. “They [the European agencies] were saying: ‘There are contacts going on between people close to Mr Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. You should be wary of this.’
“The message was: ‘Watch out. There’s something not right here.’”
This may or may not have been because FBI is “Trumpland” but be that as it may Trump and his spokes-shill Sean Spicer have argued that President Obama had been using GCHQ to spy of him and his associates which GCHC virulently denied, yet that isn’t what occurred here.
Continued.
It is understood that GCHQ was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team or proactively seeking information,” the Guardian said. “The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the US.”
However, after carefully compiling the assembled intelligence, one source close to the investigation said, “They now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion. This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.”
Sources close to the GCHQ told the Guardian that it looks like U.S. intelligence agencies “were asleep” with regards to Russia and its alliance with the Trump team.
Spicer eventually apologized for his accusations against GCHQ, but there is stil the issue that Russians committed a crime by not only stealing private information from the DNC and John Podesta, they also used that information to implement an extensive and elaborted information and DISinformation campaign by Kremlin controlled media, online social media trolls and bots in support of Donald Trump.
The only thing we haven’t yet confirmed as to whether it was determinative in outcome of the election — which it may not have been thanks to the Comey letter — and whether or not members of Trump’s campaign were aware and actively coordinating their own campaign with that of the Russians beyond simply responding to news reports as they were generally released.
Now apparently the Brits report they have proof of the latter, and that they’ve already shared this with U.S. intelligence and that’s not good either for the Russians or for Trump.
Hacking isn’t just a “game” played by kids or 300 lbs guys on their bed — it’s a very serious crime.
Someone who hacks into another person's computer could be punished by a number of different crimes, depending on the circumstances. The law punishes hacking under the computer crime statutes. These crimes carry penalties ranging from a class B misdemeanor (punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $1,000, or both) to a class B felony (punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, or both). The law also punishes unauthorized access to a computer or computer network, with penalties ranging from a class B misdemeanor to a class D felony (punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both).
The disinformation campaign was also multiple cases of wire fraud, consspiracy and libel.
Wire fraud, like mail fraud, is a federal crime, and one that is also quite broad and applicable to numerous types of activity. Wire fraud occurs whenever a person uses a telephone, electronic communication device, or even a computer with Internet access to commit an act of fraud. Like mail fraud, this law is incredibly broad and applies to numerous situations.
Incarceration. Fraud convictions bring with them the possibility of a jail or prison sentence. Though sentences differ widely, a misdemeanor conviction can lead to up to a year in a local jail, while a felony conviction can lead to multiple years in prison. Federal charges can lead to 10 years or more in federal prison.
Russia committed a crime, and members of Trump campaign according to GCHQ and other intel operations there is proof that they were — co-conspirators in that crime. Some might even consider it "Treason” since it was providing “aid and support" to an “enemy nation.”
That’s not just impeachable, that’s very likely prosecutable, hence members of the NSA stating “He Will Die in Jail.”
Today we may have learned a little more about why.
Thursday, Apr 13, 2017 · 8:36:54 PM +00:00 · Frank Vyan Walton
CNN has this now, but they’re only confirming the “communications” between Russia and Trump campaign they’re aren’t saying those communications show “conclusive proof of collaboration” which is an interesting omission.
Washington (CNN)British and other European intelligence agencies intercepted communications between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and other Russian individuals during the campaign and passed on those communications to their US counterparts, US congressional and law enforcement and US and European intelligence sources tell CNN.
The communications were captured during routine surveillance of Russian officials and other Russians known to western intelligence. British and European intelligence agencies, including GCHQ, the British intelligence agency responsible for communications surveillance, were not proactively targeting members of the Trump team but rather picked up these communications during what's known as "incidental collection," these sources tell CNN.