Mueller’s Russia troll farm case just hit another snag. It seems the social media posts and data we were told influenced the 2016 election were and continue to be in Russian. At least that’s true of the reams of data given to one of the alleged troll companies Wednesday, if Politico’s reporting is accurate.
How was that supposed to influence a U.S. election? How did they even know if it did given it was never translated. You can’t make this stuff up.
The Russia troll farm case appears to have been, in some measure, a Mueller PR stunt, but we will see soon enough.
A defense lawyer for one of the companies charged in the Russia troll farm case battled with the special counsel’s lawyer during a brief hearing before Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, Politico reports.
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The company is one of three companies and 13 individuals who were charged in the troll farm case. Robert Mueller and his team never expected any Russians or their lawyers to show up. The troll farms intended to cause strife during the 2016 election, the special counsel contends.
The attorney for Concord Management and Consulting, Eric Dubelier, complained to Judge Friedrich that the government hadn’t responded to or even acknowledged more than 70 discovery requests he made last month.
All they got, he said, was social media data from accounts allegedly set up under fake names to influence U.S. politics.
Dubelier said he needs information he can defend his client with.
“We had a very brief call on Friday initiated by the government,” Dubelier said. He said prosecutors told him much of the information was in Russian, but they had no translations. “I said, ‘How do you know what’s in it?’”
The social media data — the media that supposedly influenced our election — is in Russian? Outside of Brighton Beach residents, what Americans would be influenced by that???
The lawyer said it’s an American court and he wants it in English.
Prosecutor Jeannie Rhee said they will get what they asked for. Rhee tried to blame the defense attorney for the delay and he went back at her in a flash, saying her comments were “demonstrably false.”
There was a brief firestorm back-and-forth.
The Russian’s lawyer is also going to challenge the authority of the special counsel, he said.
Concord is allegedly owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch some call Putin’s chef. He is also sanctioned.
Far-left Politico says the Russians just want secret information.
Maybe, maybe not, but tough! They are allowed to defend themselves and Mueller brought the case.
Mueller’s team had earlier sought a delay but lost that round. Now we know why he wanted a delay! He wanted to translate the data.
During that earlier delay hearing, Concord said one of the entities named in the case, Concord Catering, didn’t even exist at the times cited by the U.S.
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