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Folks, Republicans and Democrats, as you digest the President’s insistence he can and would accept information from foreign countries in an election, remember: information is the interference. It is the weaponizing of information. This is the core of what Russia did in 2016. 1/
2/ Case in point 1: Russian hackers stole DNC emails and then released those emails to hurt Clinton and help Trump. The stolen information was both the target and the weapon. And Russia maximized the impact by releasing said info around the DNC convention.
3/ Case in point 2: Russia stole John Podesta’s emails and then released them, as before, to damage Clinton and help Trump. The information was once again the target and the weapon. And the weapon was timed for maximum impact: released 29 minutes after the Access Hollywood tape.
4/Prior to 2016, the same Russian hackers successfully penetrated the State Dept email system, stealing 1000s & 1000s of emails among US diplomats. Again, stolen info was both target & weapon, used to paint a broad intel picture of US personnel & activities around the world.
5/ “It was the weaponization of the information that they took from the DNC. That was different,” former NSA deputy director Rick Ledgett told me in my book #TheShadowWar. “Now they’re going to deploy it, to try to influence the election.”
6/ Despite lingering questions from Trump & some supporters, there is zero doubt that Russia, directed by Putin, carried out these attacks.
“I personally looked at every single piece of intelligence that went into the intelligence community assessment,” Ledgett told me.
“I personally looked at every single piece of intelligence that went into the intelligence community assessment,” Ledgett told me.
7/ Ledgett cont’d: “I spent seven to eight hours talking to our analysts, who participated in the community assessment, and I will tell you, there is absolutely no doubt that it was the Russians, and it was directed by President Putin. There is no question of that.”
8/ There is also no doubt Russia attempted similar interference in the 2018 midterms & will do same in 2020. What is different now is that a sitting US president has said publicly he can accept that help. Such negligence is a key lesson of #TheShadowWar harpercollins.com/9780062853646/…
