I’ve long been suspicious of the “Russia hacked the DNC” theory due to lack of supporting evidence. As I wrote previously:
Anyone could have hacked the DNC, just like anyone could have hacked Hillary Clinton’s illegal homebrew email server. It could have been the Russians, who regularly undertake malicious activity. But it could also be China, or a leak from within the DNC, or the Awan spy ring, who had access to DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schulz’s computers and tablets, as well as those of some 40 other House Democrats.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has long asserted that he did not receive the DNC materials from Russia, stating it was a leak rather than a hack.
But the “leak not a hack” explanation wasn’t useful for advancing the Russian Collusion fantasy, and so was ignored. I was looking forward to reading the Mueller Report to see the evidence for Russia hacking the DNC, only to find out that section was almost entirely redacted.
Now it turns out than not only did the FBI not examine the DNC servers, they didn’t even have a chance to read an unredacted report written by the firm that allegedly did so:
Despite the Russian ‘hacking’ claim the DOJ previously admitted the DNC would not let FBI investigators review the DNC server. Instead the DNC provided the FBI with analysis of a technical review done through a cyber-security contract with Crowdstrike.
The narrative around the DNC hack claim was always sketchy; many people believe the DNC email data was downloaded onto a flash drive and leaked. In a court filing (full pdf below) the scale of sketchy has increased exponentially.
Suspecting they could prove the Russian hacking claim was false, lawyers representing Roger Stone requested the full Crowdstrike report on the DNC hack. When the DOJ responded to the Stone motion they made a rather significant admission. Not only did the FBI not review the DNC server, the FBI/DOJ never even saw the Crowdstrike report.
The DOJ response, as posted by Conservative Treehouse:
Conservative Treehouse continues:
Yes, that is correct. The FBI and DOJ were only allowed to see a “draft” report prepared by Crowdstrike, and that report was redacted… and that redacted draft is the “last version of the report produced”; meaning, there are no unredacted & final versions.
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!
This means the FBI and DOJ, and all of the downstream claims by the intelligence apparatus; including the December 2016 Joint Analysis Report and January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, all the way to the Weissmann/Mueller report and the continued claims therein; were based on the official intelligence agencies of the U.S. government and the U.S. Department of Justice taking the word of a hired contractor for the Democrat party….. despite their inability to examine the server and/or actually see an unredacted technical forensic report from the investigating contractor.
The entire apparatus of the U.S. government just took their word for it…
…and used the claim therein as an official position….
…which led to a subsequent government claim, in court, of absolute certainty that Russia hacked the DNC.
Think about that for a few minutes.
The full intelligence apparatus of the United States government is relying on a report they have never even been allowed to see or confirm; that was created by a paid contractor for a political victim that would not allow the FBI to investigate their claim.
So, despite nearly three years of investigation after investigation, we still have absolutely no concrete evidence that Russia hacked the DNC servers.
Tags: 2016 Election, Crowdstrike, data security, Democrats, DNC, Elections, FBI, Julian Assange, Robert Mueller, Russia, Wikileaks
I’m with you. I’m convinced the “Russia hacked the DNC” theory is a smokescreen to draw attention away from Imran Awan & family, as well as Hillary’s ineptitude (at best).