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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLawfareblog: "The time I got recruited to collude with the Russians"
https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russiansI read the Wall Street Journals article yesterday on attempts by a GOP operative to recover missing Hillary Clinton emails with more than usual interest. I was involved in the events that reporter Shane Harris described, and I was an unnamed source for the initial story. Whats more, I was named in, and provided the documents to Harris that formed the basis of, this evenings follow-up story, which reported that A longtime Republican activist who led an operation hoping to obtain Hillary Clinton emails from hackers listed senior members of the Trump campaign, including some who now serve as top aides in the White House, in a recruitment document for his effort:
SNIP
The combination of Smiths deep knowledge of the inner workings of the campaign, this document naming him in the Trump campaign group, and the multiple references to needing to avoid campaign reporting suggested to me that the group was formed with the blessing of the Trump campaign. In the Journals story this evening, several of the individuals named in the document denied any connection to Smith, and its certainly possible that he was a big name-dropper and never really represented anyone other than himself. If thats the case, Smith talked a very good game.
Im sure readers are wondering: why did I keep quiet at the time? Actually, I didnt. In the fall, prior to the election, I discussed the events of the story first with a friend, and secondly with a journalist. The trouble was that neither I nor the reporter in question knew what to make of the whole operation. It was certainly clear that the events were bizarre, and deeply unsettling. But it wasnt reportable.
After all, Clintons private emails never materialized. We couldnt show that Smith had been in contact with actual Russians. And while I believedas I still dothat he was operating with some degree of coordination with the campaign, that was at least a little murky too. The story just didnt make much sensethat is, until the Journal yesterday published the critical fact that U.S. intelligence has reported that Russian hackers were looking to get emails to Flynn through a cut-out during the Summer of 2016, and this was no idle speculation on my part.
Suddenly, my story seemed importantand ominous.
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Lawfareblog: "The time I got recruited to collude with the Russians" (Original Post)
pnwmom
Jun 2017
OP
shraby
(21,946 posts)1. Hope Rachel has been sent this.