Russian Hoax Update

[struggle4progress]

Feds notify 21 states of election hacking
Associated Press
September 22, 2017

The federal government today told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems before last year’s presidential election.

The notification came roughly a year after U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials first said states were targeted by hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia.

The states that told The Associated Press they had been targeted included some key political battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The AP contacted every state election office to determine which ones had been informed that their election systems had been targeted. While not all responded immediately, the others confirming they had been targets were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington ...

http://www.abc15.com/news/state/russia-targeted-arizona-voter-registration-systems-in-2016

[struggle4progress]

1. Texas among states targeted

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2016-presidential-election/2017/09/22/texas-among-states-targeted-russian-election-hacking-effort-us-says

[struggle4progress]

2. Losing the intelligence battle

BY NAVEED JAMALI
ON 9/22/17 AT 12:32 PM

... I’ve been quietly asking current and former counterintelligence professionals, “Who is making sure Russia doesn't undermine our democracy?” The answer has always been the same: “I don’t know, but I hope somebody is.” But since President Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, I'm not sure anybody is ...

The threat from Moscow is not an idle one. It appears to have resulted in a successful operation against the United States, one that likely began long before Trump became president. The Russians not only penetrated the president’s inner circle but also used social media to spread fake news and may have even targeted voting systems ...

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-putin-hillary-clinton-hoax-fbi-counterintelligence-mueller-cold-669642

[struggle4progress]

3. JAMES CLAPPER: interference 'cast doubt on the legitimacy' of Trump's victory

Bryan Logan

James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Friday that the US intelligence community's assessment of Russia's interference in the 2016 election "cast doubt on the legitimacy" of President Donald Trump's victory.

"Our intelligence community assessment did serve to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his victory in the election," Clapper said of Trump in a CNN interview Friday evening.

"I think that, above all else, is what concerned him, and I think that transcends, unfortunately, the real concern here, which is Russian interference in our political process which, by the way, is going to continue," Clapper said ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-legitimacy-russia-election-interference-james-clapper-us-intelligence-assessment-2017-9

[struggle4progress]

4. What the RNC has paid to defend Trump in Russia probe

Mark Moore
September 20, 2017 | 9:39am

... RNC spokeswoman Cassie Smedile confirmed to Reuters late Tuesday that John Dowd, the president’s lead lawyer, received $100,000 from the RNC, which also paid $131,250 to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, the law firm where Jay Sekulow, another Trump attorney, is a partner.

“They have been paid with funds from a pre-existing legal proceedings account and do not reduce by a dime the resources we can put towards our political work,” Smed ile said in a statement to the news service .
​
Officials with the RNC debated over the summer whether party funds could be used to help defray the legal costs to defend Trump in the Russia probes and decided it would be allowable under the law, the Washington Post reported.

The U.S. Federal Election Commission allows the use of private campaign funds to pay legal bills arising from being a candidate or elected official, Reuters reported.

While previous presidential campaigns used such funds to pay for legal matters arising out of election matters like compliance requirements and ballot access issues, election law experts said Trump’s use of the money to cover costs in response to a criminal probe would be a first, the news service reported ...

http://nypost.com/2017/09/20/heres-what-the-rnc-has-paid-to-defend-trump-in-russia-probe/

[Iliyah]

5. I do not trust the federal government under

the gop.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. This wasn't a hoax. It was a cyber-attack by forign nationals. And by that I mean Putin and Russia

My election district was attacked. Fortunately because of either incompetence on our side our theirs or dumb luck they didn't do damage.

But there were the troll factories in the former Soviet Union that targeted propaganda right down to the individual on social media.

The stories they spread were no urban legends or hoaxes done for fun. This was selected disinformation campaign clearly and cleverly crafted to influence specific targets. And funded by Russia.

[struggle4progress]

7. +

[VOX]

11. Pretty sure OP was using sarcasm as #45 called it a "hoax" tonight in AL...

These days it's probably best to play it safe and use the smiley.

On edit, some quotation marks around "hoax" in the subject line would make the point as well.

[Not Ruth]

8. Maybe we need 18

17 intelligence agencies to stop this was not enough

[Achilleaze]

9. Incarcerate republican-russian TreasonWeasels who betrayed America

Lock them up.

[aka-chmeee]

12. Brain plays tricks on me sometimes....

First look at your Title line registered as a rather shocking "Incinerate republican-russian TreasonWeasels.........". The result of the following doubletake cleared up the error, but upon further consideration I decided "What the heck? Incarcerate, Incinerate? Either one works for me".

[Hortensis]

10. EXTREMELY suspicious: Georgia was supposedly not. I don't believe it.

Georgia is a significant state electorally. It was considered at one point to possibly even be a swing state. And, most of all, our electronic voting system is shockingly unprotected, even extremely negligently open to tampering.

This suggests, to me at least, that there is still more to know about this aspect of Russia's electoral warfare.

[ATL Ebony]

16. Agree 1000+ -- We definitely need a Dem SOS for valid/authentic election results

I didn't pay attention in 2016 but became very concerned over the GA voting machine debacle during the GA6 Special Election. Although they've now made adjustments so that (eff. 2018) you receive a paper tabulation to confirm your vote but that paper is then feed into a machine. It's also been revealed by they don't maintain their software and systems are easily hackable if left with security holes in the software.

[spanone]

13. illegitimate election

[Gothmog]

14. Russia tried to hack our voter databased

[spanone]

15. K&R...