memeorandum: Russian Hackers Kept DNC Backdoor Longer Than Anyone Knew (Kevin Poulsen/The Daily Beast)

9:50 AM ET, July 14, 2018

Top Items:

House conservatives prep push to impeach Rosenstein — House conservatives are preparing a new push to oust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to three conservative Capitol Hill sources — putting the finishing touches on an impeachment filing even as Rosenstein announced …

Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:

‘Warning Lights Are Blinking Red,’ Top Intelligence Officer Says of Russian Attacks — WASHINGTON — The nation's top intelligence officer said on Friday that the persistent danger of Russian cyberattacks today was akin to the warnings the United States had of stepped-up terror threats ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Vox, CNN, New Republic, Mediaite, U.S. Department of Justice, Defense One, 1A and The American Conservative

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Thanks to Robert Mueller, Trump and Putin Now Have a Summit Agenda — Donald Trump has always been brazen about his affection for Vladimir Putin, a condition which Merriam-Webster defines as “acting or done in a very open and shocking way without shame or embarrassment.”

David French / National Review:

Mueller's Latest Indictments Show That ‘Witches’ Are Very Real — Four vital takeaways from today's charges — Earlier today the Grand Jury for the District of Columbia charged twelve Russian intelligence officers with conspiring “to gain unauthorized access (to 'hack') …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Other McCain, LifeZette, The Atlantic, Front Page Magazine, American Greatness, Mediaite, The Guardian, The New Civil Rights Movement, FiveThirtyEight and Al Jazeera English

Just Security:

Six Big Takeaways from Mueller's Indictment of Russian Intel Officers — Special Counsel Robert Mueller released an indictment today of 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Discussion: Arizona Republic, Gizmodo, CNN, themarketswork, LifeZette, Raw Story and The Last Refuge

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

'It's a big FU from Mueller' — Trump's allies question timing of latest Mueller indictments — on the eve of the Putin summit. — President Donald Trump has accused special counsel Robert Mueller for months of running a politically driven “witch hunt” against him.

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, HuffPost, Vox and RAPPLER

Kevin Poulsen / The Daily Beast:

Russian Hackers Kept DNC Backdoor Longer Than Anyone Knew … The indictment Friday of 12 Russian military officers for the election hacks against the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign lends a surprising new detail to the 2016 election interference timeline: The Kremlin's hackers apparently still maintained …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Conservative News Today and The Atlantic

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

After being told of Russia indictments, Trump still aspired to be friends with Putin — HELSINKI — Before he embarked on a week of transatlantic diplomacy, President Trump sat down with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who previewed for the boss an explosive development …

Discussion: ABC News

David Von Drehle / Washington Post: Mueller stood up to Putin. Now it's Trump's turn.

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill:
Conservatives moving to impeach Rosenstein soon: report

Discussion: The Right Scoop, POLITICUSUSA, Axios and Talking Points Memo

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They Listening?

Discussion: emptywheel, Fox News, electionlawblog.org, The Federalist, BloombergQuint, New Republic, Vox, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Post and Gizmodo

Jonathan Turley / The Hill: Ignore the spin — still no evidence of Trump collusion

emptywheel:
The Russian Hack — As I laid out last week, I provided information …

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos, Baltimore Sun, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Vox, Washington Post, ThinkProgress and Motherboard

Washington Post:
How the Russians hacked the DNC and passed its emails to WikiLeaks

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Outside the Beltway

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times: G.R.U., Russian Spy Agency Cited by Mueller, Casts a Long Shadow

Ali Dukakis / ABC News:
Roger Stone says he's the ‘US person’ mentioned in Mueller indictment

Discussion: CNN and Mediaite

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
‘Evil Has Won’ — Pro-American Germans feel betrayed.

Discussion: Althouse and Raw Story

Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
Indicting 12 Russian Hackers Could Be Mueller's Biggest Move Yet

Discussion: The Moscow Project, Politico and Radio Free Europe

Washington Post:
Charges against Russian intelligence officers intensify spotlight on Trump adviser Roger Stone

Discussion: The Intercept, Lawfare, The Daily Beast, NBC News, New York Times, HuffPost and Raw Story

Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
A Swing-State Election Vendor Repeatedly Denied Being Hacked by Russians. The New Mueller Indictment Says Otherwise.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Talking Points Memo, VICE News, Breitbart and Hit & Run

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller officially repudiate a major Trump conspiracy theory

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune, The First Street Journal, Political Wire, Towleroad Gay News, Joe.My.God. and Washington Post

Michael Isikoff / Yahoo:
Justice Department lays out its case against 12 Russian officers accused of hacking Democrats in 2016

Discussion: RealClearPolitics, CNN, Politico and AOL

CBS News:

Maryland told its voter registration vendor financed by Russian oligarch — Top Maryland officials say the FBI told them this week that the state's voter registration platform was purchased by a Russian oligarch in 2015, without state officials knowing. The FBI did not indicate a breach occurred …

Jayne Miller / WBAL:

Maryland voter registration system runs on software owned by Russian-financed firm, I-Team learns — HIDE TRANSCRIPT SHOW TRANSCRIPT — ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The FBI has informed Maryland officials that the state's voter registration system and other online systems operate …

Ovetta Wiggins / Washington Post:
Election system firm with Maryland contract has ties to Russian oligarch, FBI tells state

Discussion: Axios

Daniel Dale / Toronto Star:

Trump has said 1,340,330 words as president. They're getting more dishonest, a Star study shows — WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump's words are getting more dishonest over time, the Star has found in the first detailed statistical analysis of his inaccurate statements in office.

Discussion: Political Wire

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

Where Did Donald Trump Get Two Hundred Million Dollars to Buy His Money-Losing Scottish Golf Club? — Between meeting the Queen of England and Vladimir Putin, President Trump will spend this weekend at Turnberry, the golf course he bought in 2014 and rechristened Trump Turnberry.

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg and Mother Jones

Former U.S. Senator Al Franken:

When Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators will have an opportunity to examine his record, his judicial philosophy, and his qualifications for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. — I wish I could be there. Because I have some questions I'd love to see him answer.

Discussion: twitchy.com

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Should Democrats Have Saved Their Filibuster for the New Court Fight? — WASHINGTON — In the days leading up to the vote on Judge Neil M. Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court in the spring of 2017, Senator Susan Collins approached Senator Michael Bennet on the Senate floor with an urgent plea.

Garrett M. Graff / New York Times:

The Real F.B.I. Election Culprit — Hint: It's not Peter Strzok. — Mr. Graff is a journalist and historian. — In his testimony before two House committees on Thursday, the F.B.I. agent Peter Strzok testified that he could have altered the 2016 election — but didn't.

Connor Wolf / LifeZette:
Is Lisa Page Spilling the Beans on Former FBI Lover Peter Strzok?

Discussion: American Greatness, Vox and RT

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Trump's ambassador lobbied Britain on behalf of jailed right-wing activist Tommy Robinson — LONDON (Reuters) - Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained to the British ambassador in Washington D.C. about the treatment of an English right-wing activist …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Katie Rogers / New York Times:

From Truman to Trump, Queen Elizabeth Has Met 12 U.S. Presidents — WINDSOR, England — As a princess and the heir to Britain's throne, she visited President Harry S. Truman in Washington and gave him a gift from her ailing father, King George VI. Later, as Queen Elizabeth II …

Discussion: Althouse and Bustle