Brian Krebs is a well-known and respected computer security guy. He did a writeup after a witness to the following got charged with lying to an FBI agent when he didn’t disclose he was working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign while researching “funny” DNS (domain name server) requests between Alfa Bank in Moscow and Trump Tower in New York back in 2016.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/09/lawsuits-indictments-revive-trump-alfa-bank-story/
It made a big splash among computer security people because what they did was look at DNS requests back when the DNC (democratic national committee) was hacked by Russia and emails leaked. They were looking for Russian computers asking for the IP addresses of DNC computers in the DNS logs.
What lit up instead (they didn’t get the Russian hackers they were looking for) were lots of communications between trump tower and Alfa Bank Moscow in the leadup to the 2016 election. Not only were the two computers asking DNS for each others’ address, the frequency of those requests went way up each time there were any developments in the election.
Background - people think of names like yahoo, amazon, sorryantivaxxer, etc. Computers use IP addresses. DNS servers return the IP address when a computer wants to talk to a website by name (or any web service) and logs the request. The trumps and the Russians didn’t understand they were leaving a trail that they were communicating by having their machines use the web names of their machines instead of the IP addresses. Names are more convenient to use thanks to DNS servers. Addresses can change but don’t always depending on the account. At any rate, names are easy but leave a trail that can be audited.
So anyway, the researchers spotted the abnormal communications and asked trump tower and Alfa Bank what the communications were about. The communications immediately stopped and servers with new names and different addresses appeared that picked the comms right back up after a short delay. They didn’t know how they were being tracked and thought they could hide different named systems (maybe the same systems with new names) but the end result was only that they revealed they were trying to keep the communications hidden.
When asked about the new machines, the communications dropped of the radar and stopped completely at least as far as could be revealed through DNS audits.
Krebs goes over all this stuff, has references, and discusses the meanings. Someone at trump tower was communicating very frequently with someone at Alfa Bank in Moscow. Oh yeah, Alfa Bank is a known cover for Russia’s FSB.
Other articles about this weren’t exactly sure what was going on and the FBI just kind of shrugged.
https://www.justsecurity.org/72262/the-trump-alfa-bank-server-mystery-resurfaces/
The trump organization tried to claim it was an ad server but Krebs explains why that excuse doesn’t fly. The thing is, DNS only shows the twin servers kept asking the DNS system for the other machine’s IP. It doesn’t reveal the content of the communications. Once the machines got the IP address of the other, communications were just between the systems. The only hope to recover content would be the big NSA systems that make copies and save communications that cross our international borders. That would likely be born classified and we probably won’t ever know unless it gets revealed as espionage or treason as part of all this other trump chaos. I wouldn’t bet against it.
What is known is the systems were in near constant communications and the frequency of those communications when graphed has big spikes around various news items like the “Russia if you’re listening” thing, and other big splash things back then.
Again, Krebs is upset that one of the researchers got in trouble when he didn’t mention his Hillary ties when asked but he has a great discussion of the situation. There is no doubt the systems were communicating. Krebs explains why they weren’t doing the things trumpco claimed. So what were they doing and why were the communications so tied to news events? Who was using them? Why?
Anyone curious can make up their own minds but it sure looks to me like trump had an open communications line with Putin and the Kremlin through Alfa Bank. Since the communications went dark, the safest assumption is that they caught on that DNS was ratting on the communications so they switched to IP addresses instead. The guys asking questions were DNS people. Not a hard leap to figure out that’s what blew the whistle. Trivial to switch to just using IP addresses and it hides the communications from convenient view. To get at comms using IP addresses, you have to do a man in the middle attack or own one of the servers in the path. A lot harder. Plus there would likely be encryption involved to further obfuscate whatever was being said.
So likely won’t ever know but the fact that trump and Alfa never adequately explained it, and their explanations don’t fit with what is known, and in light of all the other Russian ties, it sure looks like coordination and communication between the trump campaign and Russia leading up to the 2016 election.
Combine that with highest level classified materials unsecured at Mar-a-Lago and it could be trump has always been Putin’s tool and either useful idiot or outright spy.
I really miss the intelligent and thought provoking posts from TheyShouldHaveVaxxed.
Treason is an high-bar, but Müller determine that Trump coordinated with Russia; but because the Justice-Department under Nixon decided that sitting Presidents cannot be indicted —— ⸘how convenient‽ Interestingly, The Justice-Department determined that it can indict Vice Presidents:
The ticket of Nixon and Agnew was totally political, with neither liking the other. Coincindently, Agnew also crimed. His criming was totally independent of the criming of Nixon. Nixon did not know about the crimes of Agnew until after the election. Nixon saw the removal of Agnew as an opportunity to replace him with some Vice President whom he likes. That is why Nixon ordered the D. o. J (Department of Justice) to determine that sitting Presidents cannot be indicted but Vice Presidents can.
Treason is an high bar, but if anyone else would have done what Trump did, he would be indicted.
All independent lawyers consider the decision of the J. o. J. under Nixon, not to indict sitting Presidents, is a big pile of Special-Pleading Bullshit.
Simple answer:
YES.
He was bought and paid for by Putin, who was very disappointed that his servant lost the last election.
I'm just wondering how much foreign interference was involved in the Jan 6 insurrection?
Sorry I'm wrong. There is a Chris Krebs that does computer security also.
Only I think his name is Chris not Brian.
I should add, and hope you don't mind, one of the memes I made to have people stop using the term collusion. One thing the right has always been good at is messaging. They do it far better than actually DOING ANYTHING! It permeates into Dems as well and they know it... it is deliberate.
The person who wrote the summary for Just Security was very detailed, as are you. I could not find one thing they missed. (That we knew of at that time that is) Barr should have been, and still should be, looked at and treated as the next john Mitchell... Lawless scum loyal to Reagan, Bush and tRUMP and NOT America, or Americans, or the rule of law. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/Johnmitchell.html
Here is just one of hundreds of reasons why: This long pause from Barr to a specific question of foreign campaign dirt being offered being a reason to immediately contact the FBI is very telling for the highest office in the land of America’s federal police force. Is he thinking he might implicate tRUMP, tRUMP Jr. or himself, or is he thinking about the Constitution and Rule of Law? The pause says the former.
The answer that stated "foreign intelligence agent" ONLY reveals that Barr may himself also be a Russian asset being his firm also represented Alfa Bank and oligarchs. VIDEO: https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1123644534053851136