The FBI only took CrowdStrike's word for the DNC computer hack

So to be clear - the entire narrative that Russia hacked the DNC is based on a redacted draft of a report which Crowdstrike appears not to have even finalized.

FBI Never Saw CrowdStrike Unredacted or Final Report on Alleged Russian Hacking Because None was Produced

CrowdStrike, the controversial cybersecurity firm that the Democratic National Committee chose over the FBI in 2016 to examine its compromised computer servers, never produced an un-redacted or final forensic report for the government because the FBI never required it to, the Justice Department has admitted.

The revelation came in a court filing by the government in the pre-trial phase of Roger Stone, a long-time Republican operative who had an unofficial role in the campaign of candidate Donald Trump. Stone has been charged with misleading Congress, obstructing justice and intimidating a witness.

The filing was in response to a motion by Stone’s lawyers asking for “unredacted reports” from CrowdStrike in an effort to get the government to prove that Russia hacked the DNC server. “The government … does not possess the information the defandant seeks,” the filing says.

In his motion, Stone’s lawyers said he had only been given three redacted drafts. In a startling footnote in the government’s response, the DOJ admits the drafts are all that exist. “Although the reports produced to the defendant are marked ‘draft,’ counsel for the DNC and DCCC informed the government that they are the last version of the report produced,” the footnote says.

In other words CrowdStrike, upon which the FBI relied to conclude that Russia hacked the DNC, never completed a final report and only turned over three redacted drafts to the government.

....

At a time of high tension in the 2016 presidential campaign, when the late Sen. John McCain and others were calling Russian “hacking” an “act of war,” the FBI settled for three redacted “draft reports” from CrowdStrike rather than investigate the alleged hacking itself, the court document shows.

....

Comey Can’t Say Why

At a time of high tension in the 2016 presidential campaign, when the late Sen. John McCain and others were calling Russian “hacking” an “act of war,” the FBI settled for three redacted “draft reports” from CrowdStrike rather than investigate the alleged hacking itself, the court document shows.

Then FBI Director James Comey admitted in congressional testimony that he chose not to take control of the DNC’s “hacked” computers, and did not dispatch FBI computer experts to inspect them, but has had trouble explaining why.

In his testimony, he conceded that “best practices” would have dictated that forensic experts gain physical access to the computers. Nevertheless, the FBI decided to rely on forensics performed by a firm being paid for by the DNC.

Suspicions grew as Comey started referring to CrowdStrike as the “pros that they hired.” Doubts became more intense when he referred to CrowdStrike as “a high-class entity.” In fact the company had a tarnished reputation for reliability and objectivity well before it was hired by the DNC.

BURR:And the FBI, in this case, unlike other cases that you might investigate — did you ever have access to the actual hardware that was hacked? Or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the data that they had collected?

COMEY:In the case of the DNC, … we did not have access to the devices themselves. We got relevant forensic information from a private party, a high-class entity, that had done the work. But we didn’t get direct access.

BURR:But no content?

COMEY:Correct.

BURR:Isn’t content an important part of the forensics from a counterintelligence standpoint?

COMEY:It is, although what was briefed to me by my folks — the people who were my folks at the time is that they had gotten the information from the private party that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016.

HURD:So there was about a year between the FBI’s first notification of some potential problems with the DNC network and then that information getting on — getting on Wikileaks.

COMEY:Yes, sir.

HURD:… when did the DNC provide access for — to the FBI for your technical folks to review what happened?

COMEY:Well we never got direct access to the machines themselves. The DNC in the spring of 2016 hired a firm that ultimately shared with us their forensics from their review of the system. …

HURD:… So, Director FBI notified the DNC early, before any information was put on Wikileaksand when — youhave still been — never been given access to any of the technical or the physical machines that were — that were hacked by the Russians.

COMEY: That’s correct although we got the forensics from the pros that they hired which — again, best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves, but this — my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.

Comey Killed Deal with Assange

Director Comey’s March 20, 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Committee came at the same time he was scuttling months-long negotiations between Assange and lawyers representing the DOJ and CIA to grant some limited immunity for the WikiLeaks founder. In return, Assange offered to: (1) redact “some classified CIA information he might release in the future,” and (2) “provide technical evidence and discussion regarding who did not engage in the DNC releases.”

Investigative journalist John Solomon, quoting WikiLeaks’ intermediary with the government, broke this story, based on “interviews and a trove of internal DOJ documents turned over to Senate investigators.” It would be a safe assumption that Assange was offering to prove that Russia was not WikiLeaks’ source of the DNC emails, something Assange has repeatedly said.

Here's more on this incredible story:

US Govt's Entire Russia-DNC Hacking Narrative Based On Redacted Draft Of Crowdstrike Report

Now, thanks to a new court filing by longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone requesting the full Crowdstrike analysis, we find out that the US government was given a redacted version of the report marked "Draft," as reported by the Conservative Treehouse.

What makes the whole thing even more hokey is a footnote admitting that "counsel for the DNC and DCCC informed the government that they are the last version of the report produced."

IMG_3540.PNG

So to be clear - the entire narrative that Russia hacked the DNC is based on a redacted draft of a report which Crowdstrike appears not to have even finalized.

And as the Conservative Treehouse notes: "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."

Meanwhile, the Crowdstrike analyst who led forensics on the DNC servers is a former FBI employee who Robert Mueller promoted while head of the agency. It should also be noted that the government of Ukraine admonished Crowdstrike for a report they later retracted and amended, claiming that Russia hacked Ukrainian military.

So we have spent more than two years being told that since we don't believe that Russia interfered with the election and that Russia hacked the DNC computers and gave the information to Wikileaks that we are Russian trolls, bots and Putin lovers when all along we were the ones who were sane only to find out that we are right! Again lots of people here have written some very fine essays that have debunked the propaganda nonsense, but here is more evidence that we are right.

Take a bow c99-ers!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

the narrative - redact it or ignore it altogether. It's safer that way. Wacko

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Cross-posted to c99's FB page.

This should have been the story for the last three years. Prime example of why Trump can call them fake news. He simply confirms what people already see and believe.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Steven D's picture

is that you will never convince people who bought the propaganda lie that the Russians did it. They are too invested in that excuse for Hillary losing to Trump to ever allow themselves to even consider the reams of evidence against a Russian hack of the DNC emails. It will be decades before a true revisionist history will be accepted by the American people.

It's as Orwell noted: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Russia did it narrative that got me banned from DKos for 'promotion of right wing talking points'. I fervently hope that the corruption of the FBI under Obama and its efforts to protect Hillary Clinton will continue to be exposed. I also hope the the DNC/Podesta crowd finally faces public punishment for their actions too. And finally, I hope that Hillary R. Clinton and her arrogance brings her down so low that she will just finally fade away in disgrace.

Thanks for posting this!

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

snoopydawg's picture

@Fishtroller 02

Now what in this statement is false:

A two-year investigation that does zero forensic analysis of the DNC computers and ASSUMES that the Russians hacked them is no public service. It’s a fraud on the American people; worse than the Warren Report.

Oh....

flagged it for CT.

Just as Stephen stated no amount of proof will get those who have bought into the latest WMDs scam because they think that Hillary could not have lost the election without some outside shenanigans. Never mind that she got 3 million more votes than Trump. Oh no Russia interfered with it and that is that!

Their loss our gain.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Thank you for bringing this all together so well. And let us all thank Roger Stone and his attorneys for demanding the truth.

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makes another point in the Consortium News article about the insidious, lawless behavior of Comey:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51776.htm

… It is proving very difficult for some of my old FBI friends and others to believe that Comey and other justice, intelligence, and security officials at the very top could have played fast and loose with the Constitution and the law and lived a lie over the past few years.

“How did they ever think they could get away with it?” they ask. The answer is deceivingly simple. Comey himself has explained it in a moment of seemingly unintentional candor in his pretentious book, “A Higher Loyalty.” He wrote, “I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president.”

There would be no problem, of course, if Mrs. Clinton had won the election. That’s what they all thought; and that probably explains their lack of care in keeping their activities off the written record and out of computers. Elementary tradecraft goes out the window with these upper-echelon, “high-class-entity” officials, when they are sure that she, and they, are going to be the inevitable winners — with promotions, not indictments in store for them.

That assertion by Comey, that the assumption that Clinton was going to be elected president somehow exonerates him from having to investigate a crime that involves the DNC and her campaign, is just frosting on this miserable cake.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Linda Wood

“How did they ever think they could get away with it?”

The FBI setup people in Trump' campaign so that they could have an excuse to investigate them. And during that investigation members of Obama's administration broke all kind of laws and thought that they would get away with it because She would win. Oops. Now they are being investigated themselves, but for actually committing some crimes. But where it goes and if anyone will be held accountable is the $74 billion question isn't it?

But more and more of the truth is being exposed and that is good for what it's worth. History is not going to be kind to the people that fell for this.

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snoopydawg's picture

We are sending another $250 million in military equipment to Ukraine on top of the $1.5 billion given to them since 2014 when Obama overthrew the Ukraine government that was friendly towards Russia. This type of information slips around the minds of people who believe the Trump is Russia's puppet or if they know they believe that too is just CT.

Here are all the countries in Eastern Europe that we have gotten involved with our containment of Russia. Poor Poland and other countries that are going to be cannon fodder when we push Russia too far. I am surprised that Russia is not speaking out more about this, but then it's always the quiet dawgs that you have to look out for less they bite without warning.

A US-led military alliance is closing in on Russia – what you need to know

The US is continuing a strategy of containing Russia militarily by forming deepening military alliances on the country’s border. This strategy is non-derogable, even if it means forming relationships with nationalists.

Just this month, Estonia signed a defense co-operation agreement with the United States, the third and final Baltic state to do so. The news of this strengthening military alliance has come at about the same time as the entering into force of another defense cooperation agreement, this time signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The latest development

once again flies directly in the face of the already debunked theory that the Trump administration was not only appointed by the Russian government, but continues to receive its orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In reality, the new defense cooperation agreement is part and parcel of a US-Baltic Strategic Dialogue which began in November last year.

On a side but also intriguingly relevant note, the US has also launched a multimillion-dollar strategy to get allies Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia and Slovakia off Russian military equipment. The plan is being implemented so rapidly that State Department officials are expecting to expand the program within the next few weeks. Such a strategy is set to make an already lucrative US-owned defense industry even more lucrative, but for some reason you will never see Rachel Maddow on MSNBC complaining that Donald Trump is in the pockets of the military industrial complex, despite the overwhelming evidence that Trump has prioritized the sale of US weapons systems overseas.

The NYT had a story saying that the Pentagon didn't want to tell Trump that we are targeting their energy grid because they didn't trust Trump not to tell Vlad about it. But then I guess people missed the point that the Times just did tell them that. I'm thinking this is just more of the psyops of Russia Gate and reminding people that Trump can't be trusted not to tell his friend Vlad that we are closing in on his country. You know like Rachel did when she accused of Russia hacking our energy grid during last winter when people were freezing and such.

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dystopian's picture

The dembot msm will certainly try hard spin this away, just let Joe Biden save the day. I hope Barr goes after them with everything legally possible. It could be the silver bullet that kills the Dembots. Law Enforcement and Intelligence, the Dems and msm want us to look elsewhere for collusion. They put the fake in fakenews. Handed the Repubs and Trump the best weapon they could ask for. Idiots. Soft coup attempting treasonous idiots. And GO Roger Stone.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

snoopydawg's picture

@dystopian

I don't think that there is any other way to look at this. This goes all the way up to Obama because none of this would have happened without his say so. Lots of people involved in this worked closely with him and unmasking people is unconstitutional and I doubt anyone would do that if he hadn't given them the okay to do it. But...we will see how much power Trump actually has. Enough to take down an ex president? Sadly I think not.

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snoopydawg's picture

Nancy tells Trump that she won't impeach him as long as he doesn't go after Obama for his trying to derail Trump's presidency. The news about this and other things that happened during our two year nightmare is coming out. Lots of people already know what Obama and Hillary did with help from McCain and Reid and others from both parties. This article makes a good case for this happening.

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snoopydawg's picture

border Russia. Yup. This is true according to people like Rachel, David Corn and other Russian phobes.

The dossier said that in return for Russia's help in dumping hacked emails damaging to the Clinton campaign, the "TRUMP team had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to raise US/NATO defence commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine, a priority for PUTIN who needed to cauterise the subject."

Guess they haven't heard that Trump just sent more military equipment to Ukraine, but I guess if they did then it's something that Putin wanted because it would prove that Trump isn't Vlad's BFF. Or something... this crap is all the rage on ToP. SMDH!

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Pluto's Republic's picture

You did a great job.

It always came down to CrowdStrike — both at the beginning and at the end.

Science Defies Politics — Helpful Clues on CrowdStrike

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato