BOMBSHELL: Was a Trump Server communicating with Russia?

[Redstreak 6,653]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html

 

THIS. IS. HUGE if it turns out to be legitimate

 

Key quotes:

 

The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn’t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server lookups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation—conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn’t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank.

 

But now this capacious server handled a strangely small load of traffic, such a small load that it would be hard for a company to justify the expense and trouble it would take to maintain it. “I get more mail in a day than the server handled,” Davis says.

That wasn’t the only oddity. When the researchers pinged the server, they received error messages. They concluded that the server was set to accept only incoming communication from a very small handful of IP addresses.

 

Earlier this month, the group of computer scientists passed the logs to Paul Vixie. In the world of DNS experts, there’s no higher authority. Vixie wrote central strands of the DNS code that makes the Internet work. After studying the logs, he concluded, “The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion. The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.” Put differently, the logs suggested that Trump and Alfa had configured something like a digital hotline connecting the two entities, shutting out the rest of the world, and designed to obscure its own existence. Over the summer, the scientists observed the communications trail from a distance.

 

I asked Hicks to explain what caused the Trump Organization to rename its host after the New York Times called Alfa. I also asked how the Trump Organization arrived at its judgment that there was no e-mail traffic. (Furthermore, there’s no such thing as “regular” DNS server traffic, at least not according to the computer scientists I consulted. The very reason DNS exists is to enable e-mail and other means of communication.) She never provided me with a response.

What the scientists amassed wasn’t isn’t a smoking gun. It’s a suggestive body of evidence that doesn’t absolutely preclude alternative explanations. But this evidence arrives in the broader context of the campaign and everything else that has come to light: The efforts of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager to bring Ukraine into Vladimir Putin’s orbit; the other Trump advisor whose communications with senior Russian officials have worried intelligence officials; the Russian hacking of the DNC and John Podesta’s email.

 

The NYT asks Trump Organization about said secure line after being uncovered by some computer scientists.

That line suddenly shuts down.

[Supersonic 49,376]

Trump being caught up in an e-mail scandal? The irony.

 

[display name 4,360]

Hillary's email scandal teas. Expose him.

[Morphine Prince 109,654]

Praying this is true. 

Not that it will matter. His rabid supporters don't possess intelligence. 

[Brainiac 11,171]

please be true. please be true. 

[Redstreak 6,653]

6 minutes ago, Morphine Prince said:

Praying this is true. 

Not that it will matter. His rabid supporters don't possess intelligence. 

If it's true in the way its being discussed than its proof that Trump corroborated with a foreign entity (Russia) with attempts to influence the election, that's an unfathomably huge crime.

[Morphine Prince 109,654]

Just now, Redstreak said:

If it's true in the way its being discussed than its proof that Trump corroborated with Russia with attempts to influence the election, that's an unfathomably huge crime.

But Hillary's emails!!11!1!1

[GloZell Green 11,723]

Interesting 

[Luc 4,776]

This story is too complicated to make a big impact. They should just say 'TRUMP CONTACTED PUTIN FOR MANY MONTHS THROUGH SECRET EMAIL SERVER' and then it will have a real impact.

[13VictorC 1,105]

If this turns out to be real. 

[venusfly 17,885]

Huge Trump disliker here but this story makes a whole lot of words out of nothing. It's an incredibly sensationalised and long-winded way of saying "we saw a Trump server communicate with another server in Russia".

That's nothing out of the ordinary, I would expect a global organization to have contact to other countries and banks in other countries for sure?

The whole focus on the server being hidden just describes standard security practices in an organization, you're supposed to keep your servers hidden and unpingable as some of the most basic practices of internet security...

Comparing the hidden nature of the communication to a criminal network was also sensationalised... companies transferring sensitive info such as financial data also keep their communications extremelly private too, you know.

I'd love for something to somehow collapse his campaign though...

[Lion Heart 15,041]

 

[xoxo cupcakke 4,781]

Donald must be so SHOOK that even Hillary is SHOOK 

 

[Redstreak 6,653]

16 minutes ago, Luc said:

This story is too complicated to make a big impact. They should just say 'TRUMP CONTACTED PUTIN FOR MANY MONTHS THROUGH SECRET EMAIL SERVER' and then it will have a real impact.

Apparently NYT is also investigating this but Slate got it out before they did. I imagine the NYT piece will be more thorough but also simpler.

[Lion Heart 15,041]

Here's more: A veteran spy has given the FBI information concerning Trump-Russia 5 YEAR connection: 

 

Mother Jones has reviewed that report and other memos this former spy wrote. The first memo, based on the former intelligence officer's conversations with Russian sources, noted, "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." It maintained that Trump "and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." It claimed that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based on "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls."

The former intelligence officer says the response from the FBI was "shock and horror." The FBI, after receiving the first memo, did not immediately request additional material, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates. Yet in August, they say, the FBI asked him for all information in his possession and for him to explain how the material had been gathered and to identify his sources. The former spy forwarded to the bureau several memos—some of which referred to members of Trump's inner circle. After that point, he continued to share information with the FBI. "It's quite clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on," he says.

"This is something of huge significance, way above party politics," the former intelligence officer comments. "I think [Trump's] own party should be aware of this stuff as well."

Full story: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump