Russian Claims FBI Offered Deal If He Admitted Hacks

[DonViejo]

FBI PROBE INTO CLINTON EMAILS PROMPTED OFFER OF CASH, CITIZENSHIP FOR CONFESSION, RUSSIAN HACKER CLAIMS

BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 5/11/17 AT 12:01 PM

A Russian citizen accused of being a hacker by both Russia and the U.S. has claimed U.S. officials offered to cut him a deal if he admitted to interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Yevgeniy Nikulin, 29, has found himself in the middle of an international dispute between Washington and Moscow, at the very center of which lies U.S. allegations that Russia sponsored a series of hacks targeting Democratic Party candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in favor of Republican candidate and current President Donald Trump. On October 5, 2016, days before U.S. intelligence publicly accused Russia of endorsing an infiltration of Democratic Party officials' emails, Nikulin was arrested in Prague at the request of the U.S. on separate hacking charges. Now, Nikulin claims U.S. authorities tried to pin the email scandal on him.

Nikulin was detained in the Czech Republic for allegedly hacking the servers of major sites LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring between 2012 and 2013. While awaiting trial, he claims in an undated letter reportedly given to U.S. Russian-language news site Nastoyashchoe Vremya by Nikulin's lawyer, Martin Sadilek, that the FBI visited him at least a couple of times, offering to drop the charges and grant him U.S. citizenship as well as cash and an apartment in the U.S. if the Russian national confessed to participating in the 2016 hacks of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta's emails in July.

Nikulin was detained in the Czech Republic for allegedly hacking the servers of major sites LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring between 2012 and 2013. While awaiting trial, he claims in an undated letter reportedly given to U.S. Russian-language news site Nastoyashchoe Vremya by Nikulin's lawyer, Martin Sadilek, that the FBI visited him at least a couple of times, offering to drop the charges and grant him U.S. citizenship as well as cash and an apartment in the U.S. if the Russian national confessed to participating in the 2016 hacks of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta's emails in July.

"They told me: you will have to confess to breaking into Clinton's inbox for [U.S. President Donald Trump] on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Nikulin wrote, according to The Moscow Times.

more
http://www.newsweek.com/fbi-investigation-clinton-emails-russia-hack-607538?utm_source=internal&utm_campaign=most_read&utm_medium=most_read3

[bettyellen]

1. Why would we believe this?

[maxsolomon]

3. does it not sound plausible?

the FBI cuts deals in exchange for bigger fish all the time

[bettyellen]

4. Considering the source is complicit in a propaganda operation raises some

concerns. Why would you trust Russian sources on this?

[DonViejo]

6. Did you read the entire article? The AP is also a source that covered

court proceedings yesterday.

[bettyellen]

7. 3/4 of it, then it froze up on me. It appears he is saying he has nothing to do w computers and this

Is a political witchunt where they want "to pin"'hacking against the DNC on any old Russian they can- truth be damned. It sounds like more propaganda to reduce trust in our IC, and Newsweek has no way to get to the bottom of it. Seems like Russia has him on some little
trumped up charge of fraud so they can fight extradition and lean on him themselves. Yeah, he's caught in the middle but I'm not sure I trust the Moscow Times to tell me what it is. I'm guessing the framing is Putins.

[pnwmom]

9. I read the whole article and several others. He's saying that the FBI wants him to LIE

and falsely accept responsibility for the hacking -- according to the Moscow Times.

Now, Nikulin claims U.S. authorities tried to pin the email scandal on him.

[pnwmom]

8. What the person is claiming is NOT plausible. They're claiming the FBI wants them to LIE.

That he is innocent and knows nothing about computers.

[maxsolomon]

11. welp, i'm not believing the hacker

just that the FBI is sweating him to cut a deal.

of course he lies. he's involved with Russian hacking and *.

[beam me up scottie]

2. I just read this on Newsweek's Facebook page.

The FBI is trying to extradite him.

Nikulin said he refused the deal, but U.S. officials threatened to return. He claims the visits occurred in mid-November 2016 and on February 7 of this year. Czech television has reported at least one FBI visit earlier this year, according to The Guardian, which cited an FBI spokesperson as saying the agency was "aware of the situation," but declining further comment. The FBI is seeking to extradite Nikulin to face trial in the U.S., something he and his lawyers are trying to fight.

[spanone]

5. well, i'm convinced!!!!

[pnwmom]

10. This Newsweek story is based on Russian propaganda in the Moscow Times.

The person is claiming he knows nothing about computers and that the FBI wanted him to lie.