The Russians are coming!!

[critter]

Russian company(?) indicted by Mueller grand jury plans to plead not guilty. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/05/politics/russian-company-mueller-investigation/index.html)



A Russian company indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller says it plans to plead not guilty to the criminal charge that it engaged in a fraud conspiracy to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

In a court filing in federal court in Washington, DC, on Saturday, US-based defense attorneys for the Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting, snapped back at Mueller's office by calling the lawyering by one of the prosecutors "pettifoggery."


This should at least make the discovery process insanely interesting. Thoughts?

[TAZ]

I’m confused as to what they did that was illegal. I get the part about stolen ID and would like to see that land them
In hot water if they did so. However, is it illegal to troll stupid people with bots?

[critter]

I’m confused as to what they did that was illegal. I get the part about stolen ID and would like to see that land them
In hot water if they did so. However, is it illegal to troll stupid people with bots?

I got the feeling that the indictments were more of a special counsel serving ploy to make public a Russian connection without any expectation that any of those indicted would actually show up. If it is illegal to troll with bots, that's a newer statute. It's not really any different than an AD/spam bot promoting a product. A candidate is in essence a product packaged for promotion or 'sale.'

[Sensei]

I’m confused as to what they did that was illegal. I get the part about stolen ID and would like to see that land them
In hot water if they did so. However, is it illegal to troll stupid people with bots?

Foreign entities spending money in the US in an attempt to influence an election will potentially run afoul of the current judicial interpretation of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (aka McCain-Feingold).

[HCM]

Foreign entities spending money in the US in an attempt to influence an election will potentially run afoul of the current judicial interpretation of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (aka McCain-Feingold).

Along those lines, FARA (the Foreign Agent Registration Act) seems applicable as well:

https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2009-title22/pdf/USCODE-2009-title22-chap11-subchapII.pdf


The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a United States law passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a "political or quasi-political capacity" disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances.