DISINFO: US authorities' only proof of Russian hacking is a draft report from a private company
SUMMARY
It is clear that the government relied on assumptions made by a source external to the US intelligence services. According to the source the Russian state had been involved in hacking and stealing data from various servers and that data was sent to Wikileaks. A private cyber security company recruited by the Democratic National Committee writes a draft report and removes some elements because it is worried that the FBI might discover something. And this is the main proof of Moscow’s role in this hacking? Of course, sceptics could ask why a private cyber security company conducted the investigation. Why wasn’t it the FBI? Faith can lift mountains, transform beliefs, policies, countries. No need for a prophet or a miracle. All you need is a private company.
RESPONSE
There is extensive research documenting Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections - see under US Elections 2016 here. Government investigators independently verified that Russian operatives hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and did not rely on the findings of a private cyber firm, said the US prosecutor in a court filing. The prosecutors were rebutting a claim made in a prior court filing by Stone — a long-time Trump adviser who is fighting charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering — that the government relied only on “an inconclusive and unsubstantiated report” written by cyber research firm CrowdStrike and did not “collect any evidence of the DNC breach directly.” While the prosecutors noted that the investigators gathered evidence of the Russians’ involvement independently, which led to the indictment of 12 Russian military officials (in connection with the DNC hack). In the detailed indictment, one can read: "Lukashev used the account to mask a link contained in the spear phishing email, which directed the recipient to a GRU-created website (...) On or about March 21, 2016, Lukashev, Ermakov, and their co-conspirators stole the contents of the chairman’s email account, which consisted of over 50,000 emails" and other details. See also the article in the New York Times, detailing how the FBI discovered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) server 7 months before the Democrats hired CrowdStrike to investigate. See more disinformation cases on Mueller's report, also known as Russia probe, or Russian meddling in the 2016 US and elsewhere elections.