Russian hackers during last year’s US presidential campaign discussed whether they could obtain e-mails from former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton and ultimately get them to an adviser to her then-rival for the US presidency, Donald Trump, a report published on Thursday by the Wall Street Journal said.
The Journal said investigators probing Russian meddling in the election have examined intelligence agency reports about how hackers wanted to get e-mails from Clinton’s server to an intermediary and then to Mike Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser to Trump who went on to serve briefly as his national security adviser.
The newspaper also references a Republican operative who was convinced that e-mails missing from Clinton’s server were in the hands of Russian hackers, and who implied in conversations that he was working with Flynn.
The newspaper said it was not clear whether Flynn played any role in the quest of the operative, said Peter W. Smith, who died on May 14, less than two weeks after being interviewed.
The Journal said Flynn did not respond to requests for comment, the White House declined to comment and the campaign said Smith never worked for it and that any such action undertaken by Flynn, if true, was not on its behalf.
Congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating Russian influence in the election and potential coordination with the Trump campaign.
Russia has been blamed for pilfering e-mails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee.
However, the newspaper said Smith and the hackers were focused on about 33,000 e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted and that Smith believed, with no proof, were acquired by hackers.
Officials have said there is no evidence Clinton’s private e-mail server was hacked.
Smith told the newspaper that he was unsure of the authenticity of the e-mails hackers sent to him and said he told them to pass them to WikiLeaks, the same outfit that published the e-mails taken from Podesta and the committee.
“We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government,” Smith told the newspaper.
In e-mails Smith sent to potential recruits for his project, he referenced Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn, several times.
Mike Flynn was fired after less than a month because of allegations that he misled US Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russia’s ambassador to the US.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in