I’m reading it, paragraph by stunning paragraph.
Even before I finish, two impressions:
First, Mueller’s team of investigators are mind-blowingly smart. I’m reading this and thinking, “How on earth did they uncover such specific information, such damning facts?” For one thing, there must be a whole heap of warrants for communications, documents, including bank records.
It’s a thrilling read, and not difficult, i.e., not legalese-y. It just tells the story.
For another thing — and I know it’s been reported — fluent Russian speakers are part of the team and boy, what great work they did!
Second — and this is so damning — the targets of the Russian attack on our elections were hand-picked. They were American, agitated dissenters, not (as I read it) low-info Trumpers. The clear aim of the Russian attack was to feed politicized minority groups already exploding with anger at something, their parents, their whatevers, to feed them false stories about Hillary Clinton.
Well, we all know that, right? But the indictment gives us specifics, gives us confirmation.
And even more damning, the indictment names these groups: Bernie Sanders supporters, Jill Stein supporters, Black Lives Matter activists, Muslims. Before Trump won the nomination, one Russian directive to its social-media-writing “specialists”, a/k/a trolls, made it clear: “…use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them.”
Repeat: the Russians supported Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
The “criticism” of Hillary was falsely accusatory in ways now familiar to all of us — criminality, fraud, stealing votes. One particular weapon was discouraging certain groups, particularly blacks and Muslims, from voting at all, since Hillary was a bad person — and what was “bad” about her was carefully couched to appeal to whichever angry group the Russians were targeting.
Ergo, too many anti-Hillary voters were schmucks, tools of Putin. They ate up the garbage Russian trolls shoved into their faces.
And all of you who bought into (and still buy into) this bullshit–I read your comments on Twitter and in the New York Times so I know you and your Russian troll-mates are still out there–had better face yourselves in the mirror and admit you were had, had by an anti-democratic enemy of the United States.
You don’t have to apologize to me. You can face up to this privately.
But I, for once, don’t want to hear you promoting your Russian-hyped causes again. And I don’t want to hear you blaming Hillary Clinton for the election loss.
You’ve done enough damage to all of us to last your lifetimes. STFU.