Evidence: Russia Affected the Outcome of the 2016 Election

You have heard since the day after the 2016 election that Russia impacted the election to prevent Hillary Clinton from winning. Almost every news organization, every U.S. intelligence agency, and every politician in D.C. have made that claim again and again. It even resulted in the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to not investigate the validity of these claims, but (using Russian election tampering as a factual basis for investigating)  to prove that the Trump Campaign worked with the Russians to directly affect election results.

I have one real problem with this: “Where’s the Beef?” Think about this: the FBI launched an investigation under James Comey. Both houses of Congress launched investigations. The CIA, ODNI, NSA and DNI all launched investigations. Let’s look at the evidence found that verify that 1) there WAS Russian direct intrusion into the 2016 presidential election process, and 2) the Trump Campaign was part of that process:

Russian Election Tampering “Facts”

• From Wired: Did Russia Affect the 2016 Election? It’s Now Undeniable That headline following the Mueller indictment of Russians for election tampering. The story goes on to detail an elaborate system supposedly setup over time to use American media, email lists, planted news stories, and electronic advertising to affect American voters. Note that 13 Russians were “indicted” for their actions. What U.S. laws were broken? Certainly those laws and all of the specific details in the 37 page indictment will be made public in their trials. Oops: they are Russians. Vladimir Putin has already stated none of those 13 will be returned to the U.S. for trials.
• On October 7, 2016, the ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly stated that the U.S. Intelligence Community was confident that the Russian Government directed recent hacking of e-mails with the intention of interfering with the U.S. election process.^[According to the ODNI′s January 6, 2017 report, the Russian military intelligence service (GRU) had hacked the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the personal Google email account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and forwarded their contents to WikiLeaks. Although Russian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in any DNC hacks or leaks, there is strong forensic evidence linking the DNC breach to known Russian operations. In January 2017, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that Russia also interfered in the elections by disseminating fake news that was promoted on social media.
• On October 31, 2016, President Barack Obama warned Putin via the “red phone” to stop interfering or face consequences.^[ In December 2016, Obama ordered a report on hacking efforts aimed at U.S. elections since 2008, while U.S. Senators called for a bipartisan investigation. President-elect Donald Trump rejected claims of foreign interference and said that Democrats were reacting to their election loss.
• In a February 13, 2018 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the heads of the top six American intelligence agencies unanimously reaffirmed Russian interference.
• Former President George W. Bush: “There’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled,” Bush said at a talk in the United Arab Emirates. “Whether they affected the outcome is another question.” He also said: “It’s problematic that a foreign nation is involved in our election system. Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results.”
• Huffington Post: “The report from heads of American intelligence agencies has confirmed the obvious: Russia deliberately tried to influence the outcome of the American election in favor of Donald Trump. The agencies’ report found no evidence that the Russians tried to electronically change vote totals; they were content to mess with our heads, and in that, they did quite well.”
• In a exhaustive analysis of this issue, the website “Russia Matters” after months of intense research stated this: “According to the declassified ODNI report, the CIA, FBI and NSA assess that ‘Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary [of State] Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.’ The CIA and FBI expressed ‘high confidence’ in the judgment, while the NSA expressed ‘moderate confidence.’ The ODNI report says that ‘Moscow’s approach evolved over the course of the campaign based on Russia’s understanding of the electoral prospects of the two main candidates.’ The report noted that Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik consistently favored Trump and portrayed Clinton negatively. As mentioned before, the ODNI did not publicly release the bulk of its supporting evidence, citing a desire not to compromise sensitive sources and methods
• Ross Cohen of Quora.com at the beginning of his “proof” of Russian election meddling in his first sentence said, “Before discussing evidence, it’s important to be clear that the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community is unanimous: Russia interfered with the election. It happened.”

I could go on and on for hours giving you examples from various intelligence officials, media pundits, Congressional legislators and campaign officials in which each maintains that without any question, the Russian government figured heavily in the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and that they did so to prevent Hillary Clinton from being President. But let’s stop this merry-go-round right here.

Russian Election Tampering “Truths”

It is common knowledge among U.S. officials — from the current and former White Houses, both Houses of Congress, and every intelligence agency — that Russia TRIED to influence the 2016 election. In fact, they have been TRYING to do so for decades — and not just U.S. elections! And TRYING to do so is common practice: not just by the Russians, but by multiple countries. DID YOU KNOW THE U.S. IS GUILTY OF FOREIGN COUNTRY ELECTION MEDDLING?

On February 16, 2018, dnewman.org published a story about U.S. interference in other countries elections. That report started this way: “The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University. That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring. Levin defines intervention as “a costly act which is designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one of the two sides.”

At least 81 times the U.S. has tried to directly influence the results of national elections being held in sovereign foreign nations. Knowing that might give Americans a better understanding why so many foreigners no longer hold the United States in high esteem, and why so many foreigners speak angrily of U.S. matters. Today there are 41 foreign countries that summarily reject U.S. passports, thus preventing U.S. citizens from legal entry into their countries.

Summary

I cannot state factually that the Russian government through its own resources and that of independents did NOT try to impact the 2016 presidential election. We do it in other countries. On what moral authority is it all right for the U.S. to demean Russia (or any other country) for doing the same thing? In our February 16, 2018, story on this matter, we revealed that President Obama sent money to try to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from re-election: and Israel is our ally!

I do, however, doubt seriously that “IF” Russia was involved in the 2016 election, it was to support the election of Donald Trump over Hillary. Reason says otherwise: Trump campaigned to dramatically increase funding to rebuild the U.S. military to stop the bullying by countries like Russia, Iran, and North Korea on the world stage. Hillary as Secretary of State and afterwards made multiple decisions — some very public — that supported Russia. (remember that famous red “Reset” button?) Putin would have certainly preferred a U.S. President who accepted a weaker U.S. military and who had already demonstrated an intense affinity FOR Putin’s Russia. But: I DON’T KNOW THAT FOR CERTAIN, JUST AS ALL OF THE PUNDITS WHO DECLARE THERE WAS RUSSIAN ELECTION INFLUENCE DO NOT KNOW.

The Mainstream Media in the headlines and stories I listed above and in others ALL reference reports of other reporters, news outlets, and Intelligence officials when declaring “There was Russian meddling in our election, everyone knows that, and intelligence agencies all confirm that.” Even members of Congress maintain that. CLAIMING THAT AGAIN AND AGAIN DOES NOT MEAN IT’S TRUE! Facts alone must do that

Evidence? If it’s there, we STILL haven’t seen it. Yet the frenzy continues everyday — not just that there WAS Russian meddling, but that Donald Trump was somehow involved.

We’ll finish this with a few moments of a Rose Garden speech on the matter one month before the 2016 election by the one guy who certainly “knew” about election meddling: President Barack Obama:

https://youtu.be/ZPpt7-QOGKc

So who should we believe about Russian election meddling?

I have an idea: somebody release “evidence” of election meddling to the American people — not “James Clapper said so,” or the CIA, NSA, FBI, or any other 3-letter agency’s story about it — and trust Americans to make educated decisions based on evidence alone. Until then, there has been NO proof of such election tampering proven successful in changing any American’s vote. And the continued statements that it factually occurred illustrate just how desperate the Left is to diminish the election of Donald Trump by Americans.

Americans elected this President. That is ALL that matters.