Posted on 02/09/2018 4:20:17 PM PST by springwater13
After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials.
The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing.
Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian — who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. But instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.
The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Here, gentlemen, I have the codes you requested, also, a picture which may well be somebody getting laid in Moscow. You can pretend it is President Trump if you want. I would say more but I am late for my massage. I trust this is not counterfeit money like last time.”
Wait, these boys and girls were only trying to gather intelligence on how susceptible Trump would be to blackmail by foreign governments, they also offered 10,000 Pesos and a AK-47 to a Mexican informant.
There are two groups that would be on foreign soil and have access to that much money....the CIA or the State Department.
I would be curious over how the final report was written on this episode and who signed off the report. To me, it would be a career-ending moment to admit that you got into a stupid episode like this...paid $100,000...and got nothing.
The surprising thing is that the Americans threaten the Russian to never come back to Germany. The American probably watched too many Kirk Douglas movies. I’ll bet the Russian comes through Berlin monthly.
This article quotes Matthew Rosenberg author of the Times article.
“I think there’s a popular conception out there that the Russians were committed to seeing Donald Trump elected. And I think that is not entirely borne out by the facts. What the Russians were committed to—what we really know—is that they were committed to messing with American democracy “ “Disorder and dissension in the ranks of your enemies.”
So the democrats claim that the Russians were in cahoots with Trump and yet demand an investigation of Trump and anyone connected to him on the dirt coming from Russian intelligence. Mind boggling. Looks like the Russians win this one.
VERY believable because it isn’t their money! I’ll bet it was much more than 100k!
Anyone involved with trying to overthrow a duly elected President should be found guilty of treason and hung by the neck until dead.
All trials for treason should be conducted by military tribunals and the parties after arrest should be detained in GITMO. Imagine how Hussein Obama and his supporters will flip out.
The public cannot be trusted to give reasonable verdicts when trying RAT traitors. Half of the US citizens vote for these scoundrels which means many will vote for acquittal, no matter what the evidence shows.
I think I just found my new line of work. $100K from a bunch of morons to hear a bunch of BS? I’m in.
We need to shore up the systems we have... and trust them. Other than that I totally agree.
bump
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