Russian Troll Farm Goes After Mueller’s Files
Lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting are demanding a wealth of information, including the identities of informants and details of any electronic surveillance.
Lawyers for the company accused of funding Russia’s election interference trolls are demanding that special counsel Robert Mueller turn over reams of information, including the identities of informants, details of any electronic surveillance, and a list of “each and every instance” since 1945 in which the U.S. “engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes in any foreign country.”
The ambitious demand for legal discovery surfaced Friday in Mueller’s criminal case against 13 individuals and three Russian companies linked to the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg troll farm that used fake accounts to organize demonstrations on U.S. soil and flood American social media with alt-right memes during the 2016 election. One of those defendants is Concord Management and Consulting, a Russian firm run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Kremlin ally known as “Putin’s Chef,” who is also named individually as a defendant in the case.
Attorneys at the law firm Reed Smith are representing Concord. Though the Washington, D.C.-based lawyers have formally filed an appearance in the case, the government says they’ve refused to accept service of the court summons, and attempts to serve the Russian defendants through other means—like dropping off the summons with Russia’s prosecutor general in Moscow—have failed. Mueller’s team is seeking a postponement of a May 9th arraignment date until the technicality can be ironed out.
Concord’s attorneys, though, are wasting no time in demanding legal “discovery” in the case. Generally, the government is required to provide defendants with any evidence it intends to use at trial, as well as any material relevant to preparing a defense. To that end, the defense team is seeking a wealth of information on what the U.S. knows about the trolling operation, including a full list of fake social media accounts, the names of suspected co-conspirators, details of electronic surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies, and identities of Americans who were tricked into aiding the Russian campaign.
The lawyers also want Mueller to define a number of terms used in the indictment, including “improper foreign influence,” “significant funds,” and “disparaging Hillary Clinton.” In addition, the defense is demanding information on every U.S.-run election-interference operation since World War II, perhaps telegraphing a pot-kettle defense to the eight-count indictment.
“This disclosure should include any and all information regarding the use of computer infrastructure inside and outside of the United States, false foreign identities, goals to sow discord in a foreign political system, assistance to a foreign elected official or candidate, attacks on a foreign elected official or candidate, assassination or conspiracy to assassinate a foreign elected official or candidate, buying political advertisements, posing as foreign persons and/or failure to honestly identify to foreign voters the involvement of any officer, employee or agent of the United States Government,” reads a letter sent to Mueller’s office last month by Reed Smith partner Eric Dubelier.
Sensitive discovery usually comes with a court order forbidding the defendants and their lawyers from using the material for anything except trial preparation. It’s unclear how that might apply in a case where the defendant is viewed as an unofficial arm of the Kremlin.
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Now isn't that something? Looks like Mueller is praying. He's probably praying they'll forget about the whole thing if he will. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, but maybe not in this case.
Can you explain why rightwingers are taking the side of Putin's troll army against the US Justice Department?
Can you explain why left wingers are taking the side of a corrupt US government agency that won't adhere to even the most basic US laws?
Plain and simple Mueller fucked up royally. He went to trial totally unprepared- expecting no shows on an open and shut in absentia case. Seems that those accused knew enough to hire a US legal firm to represent them; and find out when the court date was. Now Mueller is trying to avoid presenting real evidence (if he has any), that will be cross examined in a court of law.
This whole farce has always been about show over substance. This trial will waste even more tax payer money. That is if Mueller can scrape together enough evidence fast enough to get it started.
That is what we would expect for Putin to say but it is not congruent coming from any supposed American patriots. How can you not see that this case is the US Justice Department versus Putin's Russian troll army which hacked and otherwise plainly illegally interfered in our American electoral system? The Russian hacked several state's election boards. Just one example of what Putin's trolls were up to. This case is about Russian state intelligence hacking the DNC and multiple state election systems. Not Cool!
This case is about Mueller wanting to win a press conference and generating good p.r. He thought he'd announce the indictments, receive plaudits for his good work and then the case would go away because the Russians would never appear in Court. He never, ever expected to take this to trial because he didn't think the Russians would defend themselves. Actually trying this case and punishing Russians was never contemplated.
It's not about punishing Russia or Russian trolls at all and never was. If it was, Mueller would be ready for trial and not stumbling around like he got caught with his pants down.
WRONG! This case is about ILLEGAL RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN OUR US ELECTION SYSTEM!
/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national
Hard to complain about the source when it is the US Department of Homeland Security
There has been plenty more online but you'd have to get outside the RW bubble to know it...
You don't seem to understand what's happening. The whole point of the exercise was to release press releases like the one you so helpfully provided. It's called public relations and indicting some Russians is always good public relations. As I said, Mueller wanted the p.r. without the prospect of ever having to prosecute the Russians, who he never thought would appear in Court. That the Russians would never actually be prosecuted was all over the press when the indictments were issued, I'm surprised you somehow missed it.
If you actually expect Mueller to go to trial and "punish" the Russians you should be livid at his incompetence.
What other high profile investigators do you have mind reading ability for? Try trump and see if there is anything other than a swarm of black bees.
It's either that or Mueller's team is just incredibly incompetent Take your pick.
I you think Russian entities should be allowed to illegally interfere in our election system with impunity the, sorry, but I must question if you are an American because we have laws in this country which make that plainly illegal and foreign enemies of the US who break our election laws will be and thus are being brought to justice in US courts. Mueller and the US Justice Department are prosecuting Colcord, a Russian entity, for hacking our US system. Whose side are you on in this matter of national security? Russia, Putin and his troll army or the US Justice Department?
Why did you post this to me? What the hell are you even talking about? No sane person can connect that rant to what I wrote. I
It's obvious you don't understand what's happening with this case or what I wrote. Your lack of basic comprehension of what's happening in this case makes it impossible to discuss this with you.
This is getting to be hilarious, per the article , it says social media was flooded with memes and alt right articles , ok show me a statute that says that is illegal. whats the answer? censor any and all content from outside the country?
now if those flooded pieces were picked up by news entities then it falls under protection of the first, freedom of the press.
I don't think anyone can say the DNC wasn't hacked ,but multiple states elections systems? I would need to see some proof of that, and since every state has verified that their actual voting tabulations were NOT hacked, the vote count stands . and even DHS stated that because of the decentralization of the system and individual states safe guards , no voted once made were tampered with or changed, the only person who could do that was the individual in the booth while they were voting . so a list of states whose voting systems were compromised would be helpful.
hate to say it but it does look to me like the special councils investigation ran a bluff , and got called on it by being answered and a demand for proof of illegality be made. in other words , put up actual proof , not circumstancial , of a statute that was violated , and proof that the indicted were the ones that actually did the illegal deed.
It must be painful to be so misinformed...
Russians compromised election systems in seven states: NBC News
and that affected the actual votes cast and counted how? and as the article states the states deny it citing their own investigations , so who to believe?
sure glad I checked before I voted on whether or not the voting machines in my state were connected to the interwebs or not.......
That's just some more of the crap we can expect from the MSM.
First of all 'they have reason to believe they were compromised.' And they say no votes were affected or changed and no one was taken off the voter registration.
To top it off, this was before the election. What did they do about it? Nothing! And they didn't even tell the states who they had reason to believe had been compromised.
This is old news and is being brought back up because they understand the average American Citizen is gullible and will think this unproven accusation will prove the Russians were hacking our voting machines, but that is not the case.
Define compromised .. why were the states never told if indeed there was evidence ..?
Why the cloak and dagger drama ... is there / was there evidence / proof that the Russians had definitely hacked the states or not. Is this where the former administration placed the blame on McConnell as to why the states were never told?
I am NO cheerleader for Russian troll farms, and I find all the finger pointing ridiculous regarding the right supporting Russia ... Do you not see where the skepticism lies? The vote of the United States was supposedly under siege - yet it was a secret until after Trump won the election? After which there is this major crisis, that included collusion with the Russians by the Trump campaign? - by putting most anything under a microscope flaws can be found. Is this Benghazi 8.0?
I do not know if the Trump Campaign colluded with Russia ... yet I think that the quest for the answer has been hijacked by a deep sea fishing expedition.
Time to go back to the good ole paper ballot! it is the only way to insure that cast votes cannot be compromised by a foreign entity due to hacking. Montana still has the paper ballot, I admit there is a certain satisfaction of manually filling in the oval and casting my vote!