The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory (aka The Big Lie)

[Dos Equis]

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel probe, said at a Friday press conference.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/16/13-russian-nationals-indicted-for-interfering-in-us-elections.html

[Yamcha]

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel probe, said at a Friday press conference.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/16/13-russian-nationals-indicted-for-interfering-in-us-elections.html

Lol!

 "Quit cherrypicking those words from the press conference!" - MSM, Straw, Prime, Agnostic

[Straw Man]

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel probe, said at a Friday press conference.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/16/13-russian-nationals-indicted-for-interfering-in-us-elections.html

correct

not in THIS INDICTMENT

funny how Trump is already saying this exonerates him

What happened to his belief that Russia didn't interfere with our election

I'm sure at some point he'll make that claim again

[Dos Equis]

Lol!

 "Quit cherrypicking those words from the press conference!" - MSM, Straw, Prime, Agnostic

lol.  As they cling to that asinine conspiracy theory.  Going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth.   

[Straw Man]

lol.  As they cling to that asinine conspiracy theory.  Going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth.   

no doubt there is a bit of that happening in the White House right now

but why

I mean, if this indictment doesn't implicate anyone in the Trump orbit that must be definitive proof that they did nothing wrong

That's the Trumptard logic right

LOL

[Dos Equis]

Paragraph 43:  they communicated derogatory information about Hillary and supported Bernie and Trump. 

Wait.  Did Bernie conspire with Russia too???  [insert sinister music]

[Dos Equis]

Paragraph 46(b):  They made Instagram posts supporting Jill Stein. 

Jill Stein is part of this conspiracy too?  This is HUGE! 

[Dos Equis]

So if I'm tracking, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein all conspired with Russia to help Trump win the presidential election so he could become a Russian puppet. 

Somebody contact director Ron Howard.  He is an outstanding movie director.  Maybe he could do something with this script? 

[Straw Man]

So if I'm tracking, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein all conspired with Russia to help Trump win the presidential election so he could become a Russian puppet.  

Somebody contact director Ron Howard.  He is an outstanding movie director.  Maybe he could do something with this script?  

Nothing in this indictment says they "conspired" with Russia

Let me guess, this is your attempt to imply that because this indictment didn't say Trump conspired with Russia that there can be no other indictment in the future that say that

Is that what you're implying...Trumptard?

Desperate much?

[Yamcha]

Nothing in this indictment says they "conspired" with Russia

Let me guess, this is your attempt to imply that because this indictment didn't say Trump conspired with Russia that there can be no other indictment in the future that say that

Is that what you're implying...Trumptard?

Desperate much?

He's not as desperate as the media to crucify trump

[Dos Equis]

He's not as desperate as the media to crucify trump

Don't mind the Village Idiot.  This is a very sad day for her.   

[Straw Man]

He's not as desperate as the media to crucify trump

Poor little Donny
Everyone is so unfair to him
SAD
 

[Straw Man]

Don't mind the Village Idiot.  This is a very sad day for her.   

LOL
Why do you think I would be sad beach bunny?

[Skeletor]

In his short statement, Rosenstein also said that after the election the defendants staged a rally in support of Trump ("show your support for President-Elect Donald Trump") while simultaneously staging a rally opposing him ("Trump is NOT my President"), both in New York at the same day. Was the "not my President" crowd colluding with the Russians?

[Dos Equis]

In his short statement, Rosenstein also said that after the election the defendants staged a rally in support of Trump ("show your support for President-Elect Donald Trump") while simultaneously staging a rally opposing him ("Trump is NOT my President"), both in New York at the same day. Was the "not my President" crowd colluding with the Russians?

Bwahahahaha!!!!!  So Trump conspired with Russia (and Bernie and Stein) to both win and lose the presidential election?  This conspiracy theory is so complicated.   

[polychronopolous]

Oh noes, some Russians didn’t like Hillary Clinton and WROTE about it online.

The horror of it all!!!!!11

[Straw Man]

Oh noes, some Russians didn’t like Hillary Clinton and WROTE about it online.

The horror of it all!!!!!11

LOL

that's what you think these indictments are about

I had no idea you were that stupid

[polychronopolous]

I can just see the headline now...

“Internet Trolls wearing nothing but their underwear yanked out of their mothers basement!”

“Hot Pockets still warm in hand!!” 

[Dos Equis]

I can just see the headline now...

“Internet Trolls wearing nothing but their underwear yanked out of their mothers basement!”

“Hot Pockets still warm in hand!!” 

Are they still in the U.S.? 

[polychronopolous]

[polychronopolous]

Are they still in the U.S.? 

As far as I can tell there hasn’t been any arrests.

13 Russians indicted to a conspiracy to engage in political speech without disclosing themselves as foreign agents.

One American has plead guilty for aiding them.

[Straw Man]

I can just see the headline now...

“Internet Trolls wearing nothing but their underwear yanked out of their mothers basement!”

“Hot Pockets still warm in hand!!” 

yeah, you're pretty close

the following may be much too nuanced and complicated for someone like you to understand but give it a try.

maybe print it out and read it slowly in sections taking long breaks for your brain to rest

or maybe go find an smart child to read it to you and explain the parts where you get lost

The special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations on Friday with illegally trying to disrupt the American political process, including efforts designed to boost the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump and hurt that of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The indictment represents the first charges by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for meddling in the 2016 presidential election — the fundamental crime that he was assigned to investigate.

In a 37-page indictment filed in United States District Court, Mr. Mueller said that the 13 individuals have conspired since 2014 to violate laws that prohibit foreigners from spending money to influence federal elections in the United States.

The indictment charges that the foreigners falsely posed as American citizens, stole identities and otherwise engaged in fraud and deceit in an effort to influence the U.S. political process, including the 2016 presidential race.

“The nature of the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were ordinary American political activists,” Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing Mr. Mueller’s inquiry, said in a brief news conference on Friday afternoon at the Justice Department.

Though the Russians are unlikely to be immediately arrested, they are now wanted by the United States government, which will make it hard for them to travel or do business internationally. All were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and five with aggravated identity theft.

The indictment lays out a highly sophisticated, well-funded, three-year-long scheme designed in part to put President Trump in The White House.

The Internet Research Agency, operating out of St. Petersburg, was described in the indictment as a hub for a sophisticated operation designed to reach millions of Americans to disrupt the political process in the United States. Its annual budget was millions of dollars; its stated goal was to “spread distrust toward the candidates and the political system in general.”

The goal of the Russian operation was “information warfare against the United States,” the indictment alleges. Some of the Russians, posing as Americans and working on what was dubbed “the Translator Project,” “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and other political activists.”

They communicated with members of the campaign, volunteers, supporters and grass-roots workers, court papers show. Those individuals — none of whom are named in the indictment — sometimes spread the Russian-created political messages through retweets, reposts and other means. The Russian conspirators then monitored how far their messages carried, the indictment states.

Individuals involved in the conspiracy traveled to and around the United States, visiting at least eight states, court papers show, and worked with an unidentified American. That person advised them to focus their efforts on what they viewed as “purple” election battleground states, including Colorado, Virginia and Florida, the indictment said.

The indictment cites a series of political advertisements paid for by the Russians, all of them against Mrs. Clinton and in favor of Mr. Trump. “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is,” one advertisement created by the Russians stated.

After the election, still striving to sow discord, Russians began staging political rallies both for and against President-elect Trump, sometimes on the same day, Mr. Rosenstein said.

While the indictment does not directly accuse the Russian government of running the operation, American intelligence agencies have said that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin authorized a multipronged campaign to boost Mr. Trump’s political chances and damage Mrs. Clinton. The indictment points out that the two Russian firms involved in financing it hold various Russian government contracts.

Specialists, divided into day teams and night teams, created hundreds of social media accounts in the United States — accounts that eventually attracted hundreds of thousands of online followers. Separate divisions of the Internet Research Agency were in charge of graphics, data analysis and information technology, according to the indictment.

The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told the RBC news website that Russian officials haven’t familiarized themselves with the document yet.

Mr. Rosenstein said repeatedly that the indictment does not allege that the Russian operation changed the outcome of the presidential election.

Even though the Russians recruited and paid Americans to help them stage political rallies and promote political candidates, he said, the indictment also does not allege that any of the Americans knowingly conspired with the Russian operation.

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge,” he said.

In a separate indictment filed by Mr. Mueller on Friday, Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, Calif., was charged with identity fraud, involving bank account numbers sold over the internet. According to court papers, some of Mr. Pinedo’s customers are foreigners who are targets of Mr. Mueller’s inquiry.

Mr. Pinedo has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mr. Mueller, court documents show.

The individuals charged were mainly directors or financiers of the “translator project,” according to the indictment. In May 2016, the defendants arranged for an American to stand in front of the White House holding a “happy birthday” sign for a man who controlled the two Russian firms that funded the operation. Other defendants were in charge of creating or updating the social media content.

The involvement of some defendants was masked behind various business entities. Two traveled to the United States under false pretenses in order to collect intelligence that would guide the project, court papers show; at least one was unable to obtain a visa.

Their plans included “evacuation scenarios” — presumably in case they were discovered. On Sept. 13, after news media reports that Mr. Mueller’s team was investigating evidence that Russians had used fake social media accounts to interfere with the 2016 election, one defendant allegedly wrote: “We had a slight crisis here at work. The F.B.I. busted our activities. So I got preoccupied with covering tracks.”

The indictment accuses the Russians of conspiring to obstruct enforcement of American laws, including campaign finance laws administered by the Federal Election Commission that bar foreign spending to influence elections. The F.E.C. launched its own probe into the Internet Research Agency last year, after Facebook revealed that the firm had paid more than $100,000 for politically-themed ads, including ones promoting “Down With Hillary” rallies.


The Russians are charged with orchestrating a wide variety of political activities, including using Facebook and Instagram to promote pro-Trump rallies in Florida, Pennsylvania and New York while organizing anti-Clinton rallies in the District of Columbia and elsewhere. They gave some American citizens specific tasks at those rallies, such as wearing a costume portraying Mrs. Clinton in a prison uniform or building a prison-style cage on a flatbed truck.

After the election, they allegedly kept up their efforts to foment dissent. In November, they staged two rallies in New York on the same day. One had the theme: “Show your support for President-Elect Trump.” The other was called: “Trump is NOT my president.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russians-indicted-mueller-election-interference.html

[Dos Equis]

As far as I can tell there hasn’t been any arrests.

13 Russians indicted to a conspiracy to engage in political speech without disclosing themselves as foreign agents.

One American has plead guilty for aiding them.

And that American was not part of the Trump campaign. 

[polychronopolous]

And that American was not part of the Trump campaign. 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/16/politics/richard-pinedo-guilty-plea/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

[Dos Equis]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/16/politics/richard-pinedo-guilty-plea/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

No doubt a well known Trump subversive.