U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
The GRU was also in contact through the Guccifer 2.0 persona with Roger Stone, a former Trump Campaign member Roger Stone, a former Trump Campaign member whose interest in material stolen from the Clinton Campaign is further discussed in Volume I, Section III.D.1, infra. After the GRU had published stolen DNC documents through Guccifer 2.0, Stone told members of the Campaign that he was in contact with Guccifer 2.0.[1] In early August 2016, Stone publicly protested Twitter's suspension of the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account. After it was reinstated, GRU officers posing as Guccifer 2.0 wrote to Stone via private message, "thank u for writing back . . . do u find anyt[h]ing interesting in the docs i posted?" On August 17, 2016, the GRU added, "please tell me if i can help u anyhow . . . it would be a great pleasure to me." On September 9, 2016, the GRU—again posing as Guccifer 2.0—referred to a stolen DCCC document posted online and asked Stone "what do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign." Stone responded, "pretty standard."[2] The investigation did not identify evidence of other communications between Stone and Guccifer 2.0.
- 3. Use of WikiLeaks
In order to expand its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the GRU units transferred many of the documents they stole from the DNC and the chairman of the Clinton Campaign to WikiLeaks. GRU officers used both the DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas to communicate with WikiLeaks through Twitter private messaging and through encrypted channels, including possibly through WikiLeaks's private communication system.
- a. WikiLeaks's Expressed Opposition Toward the Clinton Campaign
WikiLeaks, and particularly its founder Julian Assange, privately expressed opposition to candidate Clinton well before the first release of stolen documents. In November 2015, Assange wrote to other members and associates of WikiLeaks that "[w]e believe it would be much better for GOP to win . . . Dems+Media+liberals woudl [sic] then form a block to reign in their worst qualities. . . . With Hillary in own GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities., dems+media+neoliberals will be mute. . . . She's a bright, well connected, sadisitic sociopath."[3]
In March 2016, WikiLeaks released a searchable archive of approximately 30,000 Clinton emails that had been obtained through FOIA litigation.[4] While designing the archive, one WikiLeaks member explained the reason for building the archive to another associate:
- ↑ Gates 4/10/18 302, at 3.
- ↑ 8/15/16 – 9/9/16 Twitter DMs, @Guccifer_2 & @RogerJStoneJr.
- ↑ 11/19/15 Twitter Group Chat, Group ID 594242937858486276, @WikiLeaks et al. Assange also wrote that, "GOP will generate a lot oposition [sic], including through dumb moves. Hillary will do the same thing, but co-opt the liberal opposition and the GOP opposition. Hence hillary has greater freedom to start wars than the GOP and has the will to do so." Id.
- ↑ WikiLeaks, "Hillary Clinton Email Archive," available at https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/.
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