Why does this story sound like a complete and total fabrication?
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Bingo. This story is nothing but a pathetic attempt to create a backstory to cover how the FBI paid for opo research on Trump. Now they making the claim of making the payment for an inventory of missing hacking software, but those crafty Russians delivered Trump opo documents instead! Give me a break.
First, it would be of zero value to get an inventory of stollen hacking tools. They’ve been stollen. They’re all stollen. What you’re going to trust the Russians who ostensibly stole them to tell you what they stole?
The real tell in this article that it is a fake is the notice supposedly given to the Russians to not provide opo research on Trump. Why would that come up in a conversation on an inventory of stollen hacking tools?
Stollen > a traditional German fruit-and-nut-filled pastry
see https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/christmas-stollen-recipe
Stolen > ripped off
:-)