# What specifically did the Russians do to "meddle" in the election? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 6, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680 "2017-09-06T22:43:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/41 "2017-09-11T14:41:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The intro and summary on pages i, ii and iii say something quite different from what you claim. > Do you even bother to read your sites? Since you too were apparently unaware of the singular document upon which your casual recitals of third-hand political punditry are ultimately founded, I suggest reading further than the ammo for nightly newscasts. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/42 "2017-09-11T14:47:21Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you too were apparently unaware of the singular document upon which your casual recitals of third-hand political punditry are ultimately founded, I suggest reading further than the ammo for nightly newscasts. And I suggest that your “homework assignments” are stall tactics because you can’t point out anything in that document that supports your claim. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/43 "2017-09-11T14:59:15Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you’ve saw fit to make casual claims about Russian interference, one would assume you had a cursory knowledge of the single document on which every claim from the neo-Mccarthyites has been founded. You didn’t, but you continue to demonstrate great capabilities in prattling on. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you too were apparently unaware of the singular document upon which your casual recitals of third-hand political punditry are ultimately founded, I suggest reading further than the ammo for nightly newscasts. It’s one thing to critique the claims in the intelligence assessment that you linked to. It’s another to say that it all boils down the “RT exists.” I don’t think anyone can come up with a cockamaime scenario in which RT is being accused of hacking the DNC’s email, or the databases of state election boards. Nobody thinks that Guccifer 2.0 has anything to do with RT. [DCleaks.com](http://DCleaks.com) doesn’t seem to have any relationship to RT as a propaganda outlet. So you posted a frankly laughable response to the issues raised in this thread and in the document – that the mere existence of RT explains all the accusations of Russian meddling in the election. I know that is your version of Kremlin-sponsored talking points, but they are really, really bad talking points. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/44 "2017-09-11T15:04:03Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you’ve saw fit to make casual claims about Russian interference, one would assume you had a cursory knowledge of the single document on which every claim from the neo-Mccarthyites has been founded. You didn’t, but you continue to demonstrate great capabilities in prattling on. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you too were apparently unaware of the singular document upon which your casual recitals of third-hand political punditry are ultimately founded, I suggest reading further than the ammo for nightly newscasts. State your claim or get off of the _garshok_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/45 "2017-09-11T15:06:25Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since you too were apparently unaware of the singular document upon which your casual recitals of third-hand political punditry are ultimately founded, I suggest reading further than the ammo for nightly newscasts. Either the summary on pages ii and iii are backed up by the document itself or it is not. If the former, then it contradicts your statement. If the latter, then why did you waste our time posting it? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/46 "2017-09-11T15:11:04Z")
I stated my claim and posted the source of said claim. Nothing more to say, really. Once the other posters have read the months-old, much ballyhooed document, and found that “much” of the case indeed rests on the fact that RT exists in time and space, I don’t think we will have anything to argue about. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/47 "2017-09-11T15:16:22Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I stated my claim and posted the source of said claim. Nothing more to say, really. Once the other posters have read the months-old, much ballyhooed document, and found that “much” of the case indeed rests on the fact that RT exists in time and space, I don’t think we will have anything to argue about. Apparently you brought nothing to argue _with_ in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/48 "2017-09-11T15:18:29Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I stated my claim and posted the source of said claim. Nothing more to say, really. Once the other posters have read the months-old, much ballyhooed document, and found that “much” of the case indeed rests on the fact that RT exists in time and space, I don’t think we will have anything to argue about. I bet you think Moby Dick was about a whale. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/49 "2017-09-11T15:24:36Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I bet you think Moby Dick was about a whale. Since I’ve never read the book, if pressed I may guess it was about a whale, but I would not speak with certainty. i think you need help with analogies. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/50 "2017-09-11T15:26:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Apparently you brought nothing to argue _with_ in the first place. Your lack of curiosity is telling. Much better to allow Rachel Maddow to distill it for you so you don’t get wrong thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/51 "2017-09-11T15:35:27Z")
Since he won’t(or can’t) quote from his own source to back up his claim, I’m moving on. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/52 "2017-09-11T15:40:09Z")
That document is not what everything is based on. It’s really just a summary of what the intel agencies knew in late 2016. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/53 "2017-09-11T16:13:10Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Since I’ve never read the book, if pressed I may guess it was about a whale, but I would not speak with certainty. i think you need help with analogies. Perhaps this will be more familiar analogy for you… An actual “coat exists” in Gogol’s _Overcoat_. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/54 "2017-09-11T16:36:27Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Once the other posters have read the months-old, much ballyhooed document, and found that “much” of the case indeed rests on the fact that RT exists in time and space, I don’t think we will have anything to argue about. But the document does not rest on the fact that RT exists. It rests on the case that various cyber intrusions occurred, not that there are slanted Russian-operated media outlets. In other words, to make your claim make any sense, you would have to believe that it is part of RT’s routine operations to hack into email servers and state election board computers. Do you think RT does that? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/55 "2017-09-11T20:50:46Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Your lack of curiosity is telling. Much better to allow Rachel Maddow to distill it for you so you don’t get wrong thoughts. Much _more_ better for you to just declare victory and go home. You are just wasting your time with this crowd of knuckleheads. [Insert sarcastic smiley here.] ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/56 "2017-09-11T23:01:11Z")
The OP didn’t ask me for cites, but I sense that he wasn’t sold on anything I said: > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > They hacked the DNC and released their emails > **[How cybersleuths decided Russia was behind US election hack](https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-experts-decided-russia-hacked-dnc-election/)** > > Digital clues led security pros to agencies in Putin's government. It's as close as we'll ever get to proof that Russia did it. > **[Top Trump confidante admits to speaking privately with Guccifer 2.0, an...](https://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-dnc-hacker-guccifer-democratic-party-2017-3)** > > In a statement obtained by Business Insider on Thursday, Stone said he had a private conversation on Twitter with the person, nicknamed "Guccifer 2.0" last year. > **[Joint Statement from the Department Of Homeland Security and Office of the...](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national)** > > The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. > [@](#): > > funded polarizing advertising > **[Media hacking](https://render.betaworks.com/media-hacking-3b1e350d619c)** > > 2014 certainly ended up as the year of the media hack. The Sony incident, the ham handed response by the company and theatrical… > **[A Russian propaganda group purchased ads on Facebook during the 2016...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/russian-propaganda-group-purchased-ads-facebook-2016-election-heres-means)** > > Facebook announced this week that a Russian propaganda organization used the social media platform to purchase $100,000 of political advertising. Here’s what you need to know about this news. > [@](#): > > attempted to provide negative information on Hillary to the Trump campaign, and (potentially) provided funding to the RNC or Trump Campaign. > **[Donald Trump Jr.'s Emails About Meeting With Russian Lawyer, Annotated](https://www.npr.org/2017/07/11/536670194/donald-trump-jr-s-emails-about-meeting-with-russian-lawyer-annotated)** > > Trump Jr. tweeted images of an email chain about the 2016 meeting in which an intermediary said he could connect Trump with damaging information about Hillary Clinton. NPR journalists add analysis. > **[Donald Trump junior’s meeting with a Russian lawyer](https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2017/07/10/donald-trump-juniors-meeting-with-a-russian-lawyer)** > > The president’s son said that Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner were also at the meeting in June 2016 > **[Manafort's notes from the Trump Tower Russia meeting reportedly mention...](https://www.businessinsider.com/manafort-notes-trump-tower-meeting-russia-donald-jr-2017-8)** > > Paul Manafort took notes on his iPhone during the Trump Tower meeting last year and submitted them to the Senate Intelligence Committee. > [@](#): > > Manafort seems to have been sent to work for Trump by Russia, giving him a professional campaign head. [http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/342840-manafort-was-millions-in-debt-to-pro-russia-interests-before-joining](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/342840-manafort-was-millions-in-debt-to-pro-russia-interests-before-joining) [http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/07/20/nyt-rejects-manaforts-retraction-request-240782](http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/07/20/nyt-rejects-manaforts-retraction-request-240782) > **[Paul Manafort's Tight Ties to Putin](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/can-trump-distance-himself-from-paul-manafort/520359/)** > > The White House has tried to claim the former campaign chairman, who reportedly worked to further Vladimir Putin’s interests in the U.S. and overseas, was only a bit player. Not necessarily a slam dunk, but it seems out of character from everything we know of Manafort for him to work for free and the NY Times at least seemed to be confident that they were in the legal clear to state that he was in debt to Russia at the time (which makes the idea of working for free even less plausible). > [@](#): > > Flynn also seems to have been compromised, and may have been providing information one way or the other. (Though, potentially, he wasn’t ‘active’ yet during the campaign itself.) [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn/former-trump-security-aide-was-russia-blackmail-risk-ex-u-s-official-idUSKBN1841UO](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn/former-trump-security-aide-was-russia-blackmail-risk-ex-u-s-official-idUSKBN1841UO) > **[Lawmakers Say It Appears Michael Flynn Acted Illegally In Taking Russian...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/25/525568470/lawmakers-say-it-appears-michael-flynn-acted-illegally-in-taking-russian-payment)** > > The heads of the House Oversight Committee described "troubling" classified documents about former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and said the White House is refusing to release some data. [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-contacts/exclusive-trump-campaign-had-at-least-18-undisclosed-contacts-with-russians-sources-idUSKCN18E106](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-contacts/exclusive-trump-campaign-had-at-least-18-undisclosed-contacts-with-russians-sources-idUSKCN18E106) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/57 "2017-09-12T10:06:50Z")
You forgot all their attempts (with many successes) to manipulate the US populace using social media with their web brigades: [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/06/troll-armies-social-media-trump-russian](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/06/troll-armies-social-media-trump-russian) [https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-kremlins-troll-army/375932/) ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680/58 "2017-09-12T11:17:29Z")
They also hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the material was released against them during congressional election. > **[Democratic House Candidates Were Also Targets of Russian Hacking (Published...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/house-democrats-hacking-dccc.html)** > > The fallout for nearly a dozen congressional candidates underscores the effect of the Russian influence operation on the American electoral system. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specifically-did-the-russians-do-to-meddle-in-the-election/795680.md?page=2)