One of the documents describes Putin and senior officials overseeing proxy efforts to spread claims that Biden, as vice president, engaged in criminal activity in his dealings with Ukraine and Burisma. The document says operatives affiliated with the Russian government advanced these narratives with U.S. officials and other prominent figures, through personal interactions as well as audio and documentary releases via U.S. and Ukrainian outlets.
It goes on to say these figures were conspiring to intensify their efforts as the election approached, aiming to “orchestrate a high-profile corruption scandal” implicating Biden and the Democratic Party in order to help Trump win.
The document describes an intelligence assessment that Russian government-linked proxies were working to damage Biden’s candidacy ahead of the vote, relying in part on U.S. officials and other prominent people to amplify the narratives, though many of the people involved remain redacted in the public version.
64 Comments
mrmisses@lemmy.world · 145 pts · 17d
So if the Dems ever get on control they can look at these unredacted files and arrest the traitors. Right? And Biden didn't do that because?
Asafum@lemmy.world · 155 pts · 17d
Because Merrick Garland absofuckinglutly needs to go down as the biggest fucking coward in this nations history.
He sat on his hands for 2 fucking years because he "didn't want to look political." Which of course gave Trump enough time to have his pet "Judge" Alieen Cannon delay delay delay delay until he won the election.
decolo@piefed.social · 75 pts · 17d
Well Merrick is a conservative - he's a member of the Federalist society. He is certainly not an outright shithead like Alito, but don't mistake fascist sympathies for cowardice.
Granted he may also be a coward separately.
grue@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 17d
And Biden knew that but appointed him anyway.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 19 pts · 17d
One of several reasons that will get him permanently ranked among the bottom 15 of presidents.
grue@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 17d
Looking at this without context in my inbox, I thought you were being extremely generous to Trump.
Putting Biden in the bottom 15 is harsh, but fair. Fucker's gonna be remembered the same as Neville Chamberlain.
amorpheus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d
We're only talking about the bottom third, I'd even be a bit harsher. Depends on the aftermath of what's going on right now, we won't be able to gauge the true impact for years if not decades.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 16d
I would consider Biden to be a bundle deal with Trump. He isn't the bullshit itself, but he was certainly the bull that made the pile.
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 15d
I'll never get over Biden saying we need a Republican party as well. Fuck, we don't need the Democrats, why do we need hyper fascists?
13igTyme@piefed.social · 9 pts · 17d
100% of fascists are cowards.
AmidFuror@fedia.io · 1 pts · 17d
Source, please.
decolo@piefed.social · 8 pts · 17d
https://fedsoc.org/bio/merrick-garland
AmidFuror@fedia.io · 1 pts · 17d
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 16d
Ah, the old "I'm not part of this group, I only hang out with them because they have good snacks" excuse.
Triumph@fedia.io · 16 pts · 17d
Garland would have been a good Justice, but in a position where rapid action is required, not so much.
thethrilloftime69@feddit.online · 1 pts · 16d
Can we stop acting like it's individual democrats that don't have a spine? The entire party is controlled opposition. They've never once taken advantage of an opportunity to do better for the American people.
Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca · 136 pts · 17d
So, by his own account - Trump is guilty of treason. The current president of the United States of America has admitted to/provided evidence showing he has committed treason in order to become your commander-in-cheif.
How does that make you feel America? Are you actually going to do something about it now?
[To be clear, this is addressed to ALL of americas citizens - Including military and police personnel. Ofc average citizens would be afraid to do much more than protest when these people are protected by law enforcement, but will law enforcement continue to protect these people now, is the real question.]
gdog05@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 17d
Yes
obviouspornalt@fedinsfw.app · 22 pts · 17d
this has been another episode of "straightforward answers to simple questions."
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 15d
Law enforcement's history was union busting and slave hunting. It has never served the good of the common man but the manipulative whims of the wealthy.
Steve@startrek.website · 22 pts · 17d
By his own account, and many many others. Too bad you can only execute a motherfucker once.
BassTurd@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 17d
No reason not to try more than once though.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 16d
You can get close a whole bunch of times first though. That would be unpleasant.
fizzle@quokk.au · 6 pts · 17d
Obligatory "if any other president did this..."
Zink@programming.dev · 4 pts · 16d
Don't forget that he was elected as a convicted felon, and those felonies were largely committed in the process of cheating in the 2016 election.
This is yet another page, or maybe a new chapter at most, in the same old story.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 16d
At this point, I am almost hoping for a civil war. We seriously need to clean house and overhaul everything to prevent this bullshit for the next couple of centuries.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 17d
"...to do much more than protest..."
It'd be great if they would protest the orange child rapist.
Yeah, sure, when their Gestapo kill people there are a few small protests. However the protests about the demented wobbling bag of syphilis are severely lacking.
Clutter@sh.itjust.works · 63 pts · 17d
He and his handlers know: they can literally release the truth, maga won't read it anyway. And will believe his spoken lies and not the printed truth.
Because they have accepted the last part: do not believe the evidence of your eyes. Just listen and obey the the sect leader.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 16d
Like when they handed a reporter a giant binder on camera, and claimed it was the health care plan they intended to release "in two weeks?"
Later, the journalist looked at the pages in the binder, and those that weren't simply blank pages, were nothing but printed out documents and emails. None of it was any kind of a health care plan. It was like someone grabbed a random binder off a shelf, and said "Give them this, and tell them it's a health care plan."
Apparently, they didn't care that the journalist would later expose the binder as a fraud, they got the visual of the hefty "health care plan" being handed to a journalist, and that was good enough.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 15d
It seems more likely to me that they just fucked up.
Clutter@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 15d
True, they are indeed exceptionally incompetent. It's just; I think it also no longer matters "what the truth is" for these people (MAGA). They just ignore it, they just no longer know what the truth is and just "fall back" to following dear leader. "He probably has a plan!"
I'd call it "Trump Derangement Syndrome"
Uruanna@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d
Not so much fucked up, they just threw everything out without caring what was on it, and they simply declared "this proves us right, shut up". And nobody is going to do anything about the fact that it proves them wrong. Say something, maybe, do something, not happening from anyone who can do anything.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 45 pts · 17d
Russia, like China and the USA and Saudi Arabia and Israel, spend money and time on every Presidential election, whichever candidate they think will suit their interests more (as they always do).
We were aware of this when we allowed "Super PACs" to funnel money directly to bOtH pArTiEs without that pesky middleman (the law). So... of course we have President Trump, he is the end result of our own party's unlimited greed.
When your government is for sale, you get what they pay for. I'd wager Musk and Bezos spent much more money on the last campaign than Russia, this is a "red herring".
spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works · 29 pts · 17d
We did what now?
Super PACs became possible due to the Supreme Court's disastrous Citizen's United decision. "We" had nothing to do with it, just like "we" had nothing to do with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
"We" do desperately need another 5 SC justices.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 16d
I used to believe we needed to add 3-5 additional justices, but I no longer believe that.
Now I believe we need to add 20 additional justices. The composition of the court shouldn't be so tight that one bad-faith president can manipulate the system to negatively influence American society for the next 50 years.
We need 29 justices, with rolling term limits so that every president can appoint a few, but not enough to fundamentally change the direction of the court.
A country as big and influential as ours, needs to be responsible to our citizens and the world in keeping our political policies under control and trustworthy. How can any other nation make deals with America, when they know the very people they dealt with may change their minds tomorrow - literally. Nobody can trust such a capricious government, and nobody will work with us.
It is already happening, and America is starting to feel the results of permanent trade shifts away from American goods and markets. That is a direct result of recklessly fickle governmental policy at every level - trade, military, judicial, Congressional, presidential, etc. None of our systems can be trusted anymore.
Adding 20 justices to SCOTUS would be a big step in the right direction in taking true control of this country.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 16d
I don't think additional justices are enough.
The bullet points of what I have in mind:
More justices, preferably from each branch of government. Outside branches can't select the justices of another branch.
Term limits.
The president can't have more than 1 justice, and that justice leaves with their president.
IMO, what I put there is a temporary solution - we actually need regional governments and presidents, who add their respective governmental branch justices to a portion of the national government. This would make it harder for justices to be sourced from a single location or ideology. This would hopefully make it harder for corruption to become ingrained into the national court.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 16d
I've seen all sort of interesting suggested modifications, but the main concept, expanding the court to be large enough to prevent it from being manipulated, doesn't seem to have much resistance as a starting point.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 16d
I think that increasing the size is good, but the problem is that you can still source too many judges from too few authorities. By limiting how much each authority can have judges, it forces negotiation and discussion between judges on political problems.
We saw how justice selection can be distorted by delaying the selection of judges after one has passed away, for example. We should allow each authority to quickly select their judges of choice, but unable to interfere with the judge selection of rival authorities.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17d
YES - expand the court. it's needed beyond this corrupt cabal; the sitting court can't handle the caseload. expand the court and refigure the circuit courts instead of this mishmash - it's beyond time to remedy this one part of our judiciary, and it's something congress (blue wave) could do in short order.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/circuitAssignments.aspx
aarch0x40@piefed.social · 37 pts · 17d
Trump's supporters would be furious if they could read
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 17d
They would only be furious that reality exists
green_goglin@thelemmy.club · 19 pts · 17d
🌍 🧑🚀 🔫 🧑🚀
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 17 pts · 17d
I mean I already knew. Surprised it took this long. Yet, republicans probably disregard this
cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 17d
Huh. I wonder why he was never punished for this shit under the biden admin
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 16d
Four years of "Merrick Garland is a professional and he is just making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed before prosecuting trump".
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 16d
The fact that he was Republican had nothing to do with it.
That's right, Biden appointed a Republican to investigate the Republicans. One more reason why he will be permanently ranked among the bottom 15 of American presidents. If he hadn't done a great job with Covid and the Trump Economic Crash, he'd be in the bottom 5.
Smoogs@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d
we have to call out people more on stalling and kick out the people who legitimately believe such flimsy excuses for being shit managers.
cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -6 pts · 16d
Some of this might just be generational differences; I remember people in school told me a lot about how penmanship mattered, and I think for their generations (x/boomer) it did. Let's not criticize people for cultural differences just because we don't understand them.
Smoogs@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d
its the go-to for stalling. dont buy into it. it is a shit excuse to be buying into anyways.
unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz · 15 pts · 17d
Omg who could have an interest in influencing USA elections?
Is it Russia, China, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, various other petro states, blah blah, Israel! Yes it's Israel for fuck sake
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 17d
RuSsIa hOAx tHo
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 16d
Good. Now what's going to be done about it?
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 16d
lol. Next you’ll ask if the upcoming election will happen (fairly). :D
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 15d
Just look at what he does, and ignore the noises coming out of his hamberder-hole. He's serving up everything Putin wants on a schlocky gold-plated platter.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 15d
In 2018, the Trump administration approved a landmark $47 million military sale of 210 Javelin missiles to Ukraine, marking the first time the U.S. provided lethal aid to the country. Additionally, in July of that year, the Pentagon released $200 million in security assistance to Ukraine.
In September 2018, President Trump signed into law a 2019 spending bill that included $250 million in Defense Department funding for direct military aid to Ukraine.
All of this came with strings attached, of course.
The Kushner/Witkoff draft proposal for a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine included a provision that the United States would receive “50 percent of profits” from the “venture” of rebuilding Ukraine’s destroyed infrastructure. Their view seems to be that peace is an asset to be leveraged and maximized.
Further... BlackRock had been enlisted to help build a strategy for what President Volodymyr Zelensky has called an $800 billion “prosperity plan.”
The meeting, held at BlackRock’s headquarters, kick-started work on identifying funding sources and investment priorities, according to three officials familiar with the conversation, who requested anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting. More details are expected to be unveiled this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
But in Kyiv and other European capitals, BlackRock’s role has generated more questions than answers, as the Trump administration steers plans for rebuilding Ukraine toward American business interests. Seven European and Ukrainian officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive talks, voiced doubts about BlackRock’s ability to attract the enormous investments envisioned. Some indicated that the firm’s involvement could turn away potential investors.
Crazy to think this is the shadowy hand of Vladimir Putin, when it has Trump's immediate family and biggest American donors with their fingerprints all over it.
bedifferent@mastodon.social · 1 pts · 15d
@UnderpantsWeevil @phutatorius Drop a load of drones on their heads filled with large bottles of ketchup.
Caption@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d
So does this mean the claims were true?
nao@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 17d
Is this when the maga base will drop their support, will the not care or will they just never hear about it
EpeeGnome@feddit.online · 11 pts · 17d
On the off chance they do hear about it, they will immediately dismiss it as deep-state lies. No further thoughts on the matter will be needed.
Spot@startrek.website · 4 pts · 17d
Sadly, this is probably exactly what they will do. I still have a FB to connect with older relatives, locating yardsales or neighbors that belong to the pet running down the road.
Our local neighborhood area's group is either all bots or total idiots. Regular use of 'fake media' or 'demonrat propaganda' on anything that dares to question their dear leader.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 16d
AI is the denialist's best friend. Now they just declare it AI, and that's the end of the discussion. Not their stuff though, that's totally real.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 16d
I do occasional business with a guy who is a hard core MAGA, and always has a TV on next to his desk, tuned to Fox News. I've been doing business with him for years, and that TV has NEVER been on a different channel.
He ONLY knows what Fox News tells him. Anything else from any other source is fake news.
I'd take my business elsewhere, but we have a good business relationship, and it's good to know a few MAGAs so you can touch base with the delusion, and stay in touch with what's going on.
Rothe@piefed.social · 1 pts · 17d
Why would they? They like Putin, and they want his interference in US politics. They just don't like it to be publicly known.
plyth@feddit.org · 1 pts · 17d
Does this mean they have proof against Biden or was everything fabricated?