U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
The Office was able to identify when the GRU (operating through its personas Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks) transferred some of the stolen documents to WikiLeaks through online archives set up by the GRU. Assange had access to the internet from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England. Investigative Technique
[1]
On July 14, 2016, GRU officers used a Guccifer 2.0 email account to send WikiLeaks an email bearing the subject "big archive" and the message "a new attempt."[2] The email contained an encrypted attachment with the name "wk dnc link1.txt.gpg."[3] Using the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account, GRU officers sent WikiLeaks an encrypted file and instructions on how to open it.[4] On July 18, 2016, WikiLeaks confirmed in a direct message to the Guccifer 2.0 account that it had "the 1Gb or so archive" and would make a release of the stolen documents "this week."[5] On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released over 20,000 emails and other documents stolen from the DNC computer networks.[6] The Democratic National Convention began three days later.
Similar communications occurred between WikiLeaks and the GRU-operated persona DCLeaks. On September 15, 2016, @dcleaks wrote to @WikiLeaks, "hi there! I'm from DC Leaks. How could we discuss some submission-related issues? Am trying to reach out to you via your secured chat but getting no response. I've got something that might interest you. You won't be disappointed, I promise."[7] The WikiLeaks account responded, "Hi there," without further elaboration. The @dcleaks_ account did not respond immediately.
The same day, the Twitter account @guccifer_2 sent @dcleaks_ a direct message, which is the first known contact between the personas.[8] During subsequent communications, the
- ↑ Investigative Technique
- ↑ This was not the GRU's first attempt at transferring data to WikiLeaks. On June 29, 2016, the GRU used a Guccifer 2.0 email account to send a large encrypted file to a WikiLeaks email account. 6/29/16 Email, guccifer2@mail.com IT (The email appears to have been undelivered.)
- ↑ See SM-2589105-DCLEAKS, serial 28 (analysis).
- ↑ 6/27/16 Twitter DM, @Guccifer_2 to @WikiLeaks.
- ↑ 7/18/16 Twitter DM, @Guccifer_2 & @WikiLeaks.
- ↑ "DNC Email Archive," WikiLeaks (Jul. 22, 2016), available at [1].
- ↑ 9/15/16 Twitter DM, @dcleaks_ to @WikiLeaks.
- ↑ 9/15/16 Twitter DM, @guccifer_2 to @dcleaks_.
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