Here's an
article from Barbara McQuade, a former prosecutor, on recent Mueller revelations buried in a technical filing. This filing was already highlighted in a tweet posted ITT, but I feel like a lot of people breezed over it. McQuade writes:
Quote:
One detail in the new filing jumps out. It says “the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release. Several of those search warrants were executed on accounts that contained Stone’s communications with Guccifer 2.0 and with Organization 1.”
Quote:
Referring to these communications as “evidence” suggests that the special counsel considers the communications probative and relevant to proving Stone’s guilt. Whatever these communications are, we can reasonably conclude that they are incriminating.
Bolded: That is, Mueller is now asserting that Stone spoke to BOTH agents of the Russian government responsible for hacking emails and to Wikileaks (Organization 1).
Underlined: McQuade continues:
Quote:
Third, the phrase “to discuss the timing and promotion of their release” emphasizes that Mueller considers the conspiracy with which he has charged the Russian intelligence officers to include not just hacking and stealing emails, but also disseminating them. The GRU indictment provides a framework for adding as co-conspirators anyone else who conspired to promote the release of the stolen emails at a time that would be most beneficial to Trump’s campaign.
In fact, one batch of emails was released about an hour after news broke about the "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump was heard disparaging women. If someone from the campaign suggested to WikiLeaks that stolen emails be released that day, that person could potentially be charged as a co-conspirator in the GRU case.
Recall that the Stone indictment said both that Stone had told a campaign official that "[Wikileaks] will release a load every week going forward". Also that "Shortly after Organization 1’s release, an associate of the high-ranking Trump Campaign official sent a text message to STONE that read ‘well done.'" (from the indictment).
What I'm trying to say is YES COLLUSION. Whether Trump himself authorized this we don't know and may never know. But that Russia, agents of the campaign and Wikileaks coordinated with each other to time releases of stolen documents in a way which was beneficial to the Trump campaign, Mueller now claims to be able to establish that as fact with the information he has.
A note of caution from the indictment:
Quote:
Also on or about October 3, 2016, STONE received an email from a reporter who had connections to a high-ranking Trump Campaign official that asked, ‘[the head of Organization 1] — what’s he got? Hope it’s good.’ STONE responded in part, ‘It is. I’d tell [the high-ranking Trump Campaign official] but he doesn’t call me back.
This suggests that this might have been a bit of a sideline in the campaign. All this stuff seems important to us now, in our context, but during the campaign, senior campaign officials probably had more important things to do. They probably threw Stone at this because he was expendable and not useful for anything else.