The Justice Department unsealed charges against six alleged Russian government hackers on Monday and said they were behind a rash of recent cyberattacks — from damaging Ukraine's electrical grid to interfering in France's election to spying on European investigations and more.

The men work for the Russian military intelligence agency GRU — which also led Russian cyber-interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Justice Department officials said Moscow has only sustained or heightened its intensity of effort since then.

"No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite," said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

"Today the department has charged these Russian officers with conducting the most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group. ... No nation will recapture greatness while behaving in this way."

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925423705/doj-unveils-more-sweeping-cyber-charges-against-russian-intelligence-officers?utm_campaign=politics&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social

By Jonathan Chait

(Snip)

It is true that Trump found many of the questions posed to him difficult to answer and that Biden answered his queries more easily. It is also true that mainstream news coverage, in general, has depicted Trump in a brutally harsh light. (This, of course, omits conservative media, which functions as a state-controlled message machine.)

But it’s not the media’s fault that Trump continues to incriminate himself and is unable to answer simple questions. The problem is not that the media holds him to a difficult standard. He is held, by necessity, to a more forgiving standard than any modern president. But however low the bar is set, Trump continues to trip over it.

(Snip)

Imagine if Biden had been asked the same question. He would have had little difficulty saying, ‘No, the Democratic party is not the cover for a satanic sex ring.’ The reason reporters don’t pose this question to Biden is not because it would be too difficult for him to answer, but because it would be too easy.

(Snip)

Guthrie asked Trump why he tweeted “a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden orchestrated to have SEAL Team Six, the Navy SEAL Team Six, killed to cover up the fake death of bin Laden.” If Biden had tweeted out a claim that Trump had killed somebody, and that person was in fact alive, he would probably be asked about it — a lot. Indeed, if Biden had tweeted a ludicrous murder accusation, it would represent a crisis for his campaign so dire that the press would likely talk about little else. His allies would be pressed to denounce him, and Democrats would be discussing ways to force him off the ticket. For Trump, it was just another item on the list of questions.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/media-isnt-biased-against-trump-biden-liberal-news.html?__twitter_impression=true

US intelligence analysts feared Russia would dump hacked and forged Burisma emails targeting Biden as an 'October surprise,' report says


*US intelligence analysts suspected at least as far back as last month that a mixture of hacked and forged emails from the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings might be dumped online as an "October surprise," The New York Times reported Wednesday.

*Russian military-intelligence hackers successfully breached Burisma's servers in January, The Times reported earlier this year.

*Wednesday's report said analysts contacted people with knowledge of the hack because they were concerned "the Burisma material would be leaked alongside forged materials in an attempt to hurt" the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.

*Earlier Wednesday, the New York Post published an article purporting to feature a "smoking-gun email" between a Burisma executive and Biden's son Hunter.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-analysts-hacked-burisma-emails-russia-october-surprise-2020-10?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Washington (CNN)For more than three years, federal prosecutors investigated whether money flowing through an Egyptian state-owned bank could have backed millions of dollars Donald Trump donated to his own campaign days before he won the 2016 election, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The investigation, which both predated and outlasted special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, examined whether there was an illegal foreign campaign contribution. It represents one of the most prolonged efforts by federal investigators to understand the President's foreign financial ties, and became a significant but hidden part of the special counsel's pursuits.

The investigation was kept so secret that at one point investigators locked down an entire floor of a federal courthouse in Washington, DC, so Mueller's team could fight for the Egyptian bank's records in closed-door court proceedings following a grand jury subpoena. The probe, which closed this summer with no charges filed, has never before been described publicly.

Prosecutors suspected there could be a link between the Egyptian bank and Trump's campaign contribution, according to several of the sources, but they could never prove a connection.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/politics/trump-campaign-donation-investigation/index.html

Denounced as Going 'Too Far' When Sanders Said It—American Bar Association Backs Full Voting Rights for Incarcerated People

Bolstering a proposal which was denounced by centrists and conservatives as going "too far" in the fight for voting rights when Sen. Bernie Sanders backed it during the Democratic presidential primary, the American Bar Association won applause from rights advocates on Thursday regarding its support for full enfranchisement for current and former prison inmates.

At its annual meeting earlier this month, the ABA adopted a resolution stating the organization would urge all levels of government to "repeal laws that disenfranchise persons based upon criminal conviction [and] restore voting rights to those currently and formerly incarcerated, including those on probation, parole, or any other community-based correctional program."

The national lawyers' association further said (pdf) that "no person convicted of crime" should be disenfranchised in the U.S. because of failure to pay fines, court fees, or other payments as a result of their conviction.

Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, who was elected last year to be commonwealth's attorney, the top prosecutor for Arlington and Falls Church, Virginia was among the reform-minded attorneys who applauded the resolution—and wondered why she was criticized during her campaign for expressing support for prisoner's voting rights.

"Glad to see that 'radical' organization, the ABA, joined the fight," tweeted Dehghani-Tafti.

Common Dreams
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/14/denounced-going-too-far-when-sanders-said-it-american-bar-association-backs-full%3famp

https://twitter.com/49ers/status/1312212021493092352

‘Please Don’t Let Me Die Back Here’: Aurora Police Video Released Of Woman Cuffed, Hogtied In Back Of Patrol Car

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said bodycam video released Tuesday appears to show one of her former officers, Levi Huffine, “punishing” a female prisoner who was handcuffed, hogtied and rode upside down in the back of a patrol car for more than 20 minutes following her arrest in August 2019.

“In my opinion she was just tortured back there. It makes me sick,” said Wilson after watching the video again Tuesday, during a civil service commission appeal hearing for Officer Levi Huffine, who was fired over the incident. “We are not judge, jury and executer,” said Wilson. “We are not to treat people inhumanely like they don’t matter.

“And he is lucky she did not die in the backseat of that car. Because he would be — in my opinion — in an orange jumpsuit right now,” said Wilson.

(Snip)

Chief Wilson said she lost count of how many times Kelly asked for help. Wilson said she was particularly struck at how panicked and desperate Kelly seemed to be at one point, saying, “I beg you master.”

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/09/29/shataean-kelly-levi-huffine-aurora-police-video-released-woman-struggling-back-patrol-car/amp/?fbclid=IwAR0vdRS_WkQt8uRbaD-q0H1_1TgW4pW2ramaOg_yiz6g1sLz8yp28BHWyBw&__twitter_impression=true