DOJ moves to drop charges against Russians accused of funding troll farm

[babylonsister]

https://www.axios.com/justice-department-russian-trolls-internet-research-agency-9bf95c0d-2f6a-4377-84a5-c5f3eb8c4abb.html

23 mins ago - Politics & Policy
DOJ moves to drop charges against Russians accused of funding troll farm
Zachary Basu


Justice Department prosecutors on Monday filed a motion to dismiss charges against the shell companies accused of financing the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that engaged in a social media disinformation scheme to interfere in the 2016 election.

The big picture: Prosecutors claim that the Russians were essentially able to evade accountability and punishment while taking advantage of the discovery process to potentially harm U.S. national security.

Context: The shell companies, Concord Management and Concord Consulting, were charged by special counsel Robert Mueller in 2018 along with 13 Russian individuals and the troll farm itself — known as the Internet Research Agency. The scheme, outlined in the 2018 indictment and again in the Mueller report, sought to sow political discord ahead of the 2016 election.

Details: The Concord companies sought to fight the indictment in court, unlike the other Russians charged by Mueller. In doing so, prosecutors say they were able to "obtain discovery" from the U.S. government regarding its efforts to "detect and deter foreign election interference" — while also ignoring court-issued subpoenas.

"In short, Concord has demonstrated its intent to reap the benefits of the Court’s jurisdiction while positioning itself to evade any real obligations or responsibility," prosecutors argued in the filing.

"It is no longer is the best interest of justice or the country’s national security to continue this prosecution."

[rockfordfile]

1. This shows just how corrupt and un-American Trump/GOP are

[Caliman73]

3. They are certainly corrupt but how does THIS show that?

It is a feature and vulnerability in our legal system. The same way that we actually want Trump to sue his sexual assault accusers because we know that they would have the ability to use discovery to look into his crimes, this is the right of accused people to see what the prosecution's case is. It sucks that Russians would be able to exploit that for nefarious purposes, but it is built into the legal system. It isn't something new that Trump and his band of idiots just made up.

[C_U_L8R]

2. A likely story.

I smell a rotten trump

[Lulu KC]

4. They are outdoing themselves

There is no limit.
There must be a word for being shocked without being surprised. I have needed that word since November 2016.

[procon]

5. Isn't that special!

We might as well have Russian agents running the damn DoJ.

Trump is a nasty, vindictive bastard and he's determined to wipe out everything Mueller did, the same way he's tried to make everything Obama did disappear.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. Dirty Barr is working for a Russian agent -- Agent Orange Anusmouth

[MyOwnPeace]

6. Make it simple for us commoners:

RELEASE THE ENTIRE MUELLER REPORT!!!!!