Robert Mueller Warns of Continued Russian Election Interference, US Remains Unprepared

[Social Media]

 

Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has issued a stark warning: the United States is still not adequately prepared to combat Russian attacks on its democratic process. This caution comes in the preface to *Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation*, a new book by Aaron Zebley, James Quarles, and Andrew Goldstein, all of whom served as prosecutors under Mueller during his investigation from 2017 to 2019.

 

“It is … evident that Americans have not learned the lessons of Russia’s attack on our democracy in 2016,” Mueller writes. He points out that the evidence was undeniable in his report, which detailed how the Russian government systematically targeted the U.S. electoral process to undermine democracy and boost one candidate over another. That candidate was Donald Trump, the Republican who won the presidency over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

 

Despite efforts by various government officials, Mueller states that the country remains ill-prepared for future Russian interference, echoing a grave concern that “Russia attacked us before and will do so again.” Mueller’s warning underscores the importance of vigilance from all Americans, as well as the need for heightened governmental readiness.

 

The book *Interference* explores the Mueller investigation in depth, from its origins following the firing of FBI Director James Comey to its eventual conclusion in March 2019. The investigation did not find conclusive evidence of collusion between Trump and Moscow, but it did lead to indictments against three Russian entities and 34 individuals. One of those convicted was Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was jailed. Mueller also identified 10 potential instances of obstruction of justice by Trump, though he refrained from indicting the sitting president due to Justice Department guidelines.

 

Mueller praises Zebley, Quarles, and Goldstein, writing that they “care deeply about the rule of law and know the importance of making decisions with integrity and humility.” He highlights the value of these principles, particularly when facing those who are unwilling to play by the rules.

 

The book also reveals behind-the-scenes moments, including a meeting at the White House, where Mueller was considered for a return to his previous position as FBI director. According to the authors, Trump dominated the conversation, but Mueller declined the offer, despite Trump’s later claims to the contrary.

 

In the lead-up to the 2016 election, an “October surprise” came in the form of WikiLeaks' release of hacked Democratic emails, attributed to Russian interference. This event coincided with the fallout from Trump’s infamous *Access Hollywood* tape, in which he boasted about sexual assault. The Mueller team’s investigation confirmed that Russia’s actions were aimed at tipping the scales in Trump’s favor. However, attempts to interview Trump himself were blocked by his attorneys, including Rudy Giuliani, who breached confidentiality agreements, leading Mueller to cut ties with him permanently.

 

As the book examines the aftermath of the 2016 election, it also reflects on the broader legal challenges Trump faced during his presidency. Giuliani is now embroiled in criminal and civil proceedings linked to efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss, while Trump faces multiple charges himself, including 34 criminal counts related to hush-money payments before the 2016 election.

 

The authors express concern over recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that could complicate future investigations into presidential misconduct. They highlight cases such as *Trump v. United States*, which grants a president "presumptive immunity" for official actions, thereby limiting the scope of potential prosecution for presidential abuses of power.

 

Mueller’s investigation may not have resulted in Trump’s punishment, but it played a significant role in shaping public discourse on the integrity of American elections. As the nation heads toward another presidential race, the warnings from Mueller and his team resonate even more urgently. Their book arrives at a time when new reports suggest that Russian influence operations, this time targeting Vice President Kamala Harris, are already underway.

 

Mueller’s warning is clear: while the U.S. may have learned from the past, it remains unprepared for the challenges of tomorrow.

 

Credit: The Guardian 2024-09-19

 

 

 

[Cryingdick]

Yeah he is as sharp as a tack.

[Tug]

4 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

Yeah he is as sharp as a tack.

He was spot on it was trumps pet AG bill Barr that betrayed the American people and the judicial system.Mr muller layed it all out it was not in his job to prosecute just convey the facts Barr covered for trump 

[ThaiFelix]

Donald, go to your room right now!!

[blazes]

Why  is this Russia stuff news?  Russia has been interfering in American politics since 1917, and of course America has never forgiven Russia for going Commie in 1917.

 More to the point, the US interferes in other countries' politics routinely, usually of their allies!  

 

[spidermike007]

No question about this. Russia is heinous and is never up to any good. They are sucking the blood of the planet and never, ever do anything beneficial for the people of the world. Such parasites. 

 

And no question they prefer Trump. Putin can very easily manipulate him, and he has already made it clear he will not support Ukraine.

 

Trump loves dictators and adores Putin.

 

 

[blazes]

25 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

No question about this. Russia is heinous and is never up to any good. They are sucking the blood of the planet and never, ever do anything beneficial for the people of the world. Such parasites. 

 

And no question they prefer Trump. Putin can very easily manipulate him, and he has already made it clear he will not support Ukraine.

 

Trump loves dictators and adores Putin.

 

 

 

There's something fanatical about this clumsy photo-shopping.  Suggests to me a severe case of derangement.

Edited September 19 by blazes

[cdnvic]

Removed an intentional misspelling of someone's name. 

[impulse]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

No question about this. Russia is heinous and is never up to any good. They are sucking the blood of the planet and never, ever do anything beneficial for the people of the world. Such parasites. 

 

And no question they prefer Trump. Putin can very easily manipulate him, and he has already made it clear he will not support Ukraine.

 

Trump loves dictators and adores Putin.

 

If Putin likes Trump enough to not invade Ukraine on Trump's watch, I'm okay with that.

 

[candide]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

No question about this. Russia is heinous and is never up to any good. They are sucking the blood of the planet and never, ever do anything beneficial for the people of the world. Such parasites. 

 

And no question they prefer Trump. Putin can very easily manipulate him, and he has already made it clear he will not support Ukraine.

 

Trump loves dictators and adores Putin.

 

 

Putin knows Trump can be easily fooled! 😃

[spidermike007]

7 minutes ago, candide said:

Putin knows Trump can be easily fooled! 😃

He has such a simple mind, and he has such a delicate ego, one compliment properly placed and he's in your favor for life. One insult cleverly placed and he's completely thrown off his game. That is the very definition of a highly unstable man. 

[frank83628]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

No question about this. Russia is heinous and is never up to any good. They are sucking the blood of the planet and never, ever do anything beneficial for the people of the world. Such parasites. 

 

And no question they prefer Trump. Putin can very easily manipulate him, and he has already made it clear he will not support Ukraine.

 

Trump loves dictators and adores Putin.

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, candide said:

Putin knows Trump can be easily fooled! 😃

yes, only an idiot would want a war to end and people stop dying!!

if the US UK and nato hadn't been blood thirsty psychopaths the Ukraine war could have a long time ago,

[spidermike007]

45 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

If Putin likes Trump enough to not invade Ukraine on Trump's watch, I'm okay with that.

 

If you truly think that Putin waited until Trump's watch was over before invading Ukraine, and that was the reason for his wait, you need to back off on the Kool-aid. Trump himself has confessed that he likely would not have a interfered in the war. So please explain to us in all your native wisdom why Trump would act as any sort of deterrent for Russia. 

[spidermike007]

2 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

 

yes, only an idiot would want a war to end and people stop dying!!

if the US UK and nato hadn't been blood thirsty psychopaths the Ukraine war could have a long time ago,

Correct, the war could have ended long ago, if we were all willing to Just surrender Ukraine, at Putin's request. He loves you guys. 

[mdr224]

4 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

If you truly think that Putin waited until Trump's watch was over before invading Ukraine, and that was the reason for his wait, you need to back off on the Kool-aid. Trump himself has confessed that he likely would not have a interfered in the war. So please explain to us in all your native wisdom why Trump would act as any sort of deterrent for Russia. 

Because he was strong, and the democrats are oh so weak. Its so easy for putin to take advantage of this inept government

[impulse]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

If you truly think that Putin waited until Trump's watch was over before invading Ukraine, and that was the reason for his wait, you need to back off on the Kool-aid. Trump himself has confessed that he likely would not have a interfered in the war. So please explain to us in all your native wisdom why Trump would act as any sort of deterrent for Russia. 

Historians will be arguing for 50 years why half a million Ukrainians did not die on Trump's watch.

 

Personally, I think it's because Putin couldn't predict Trump's response, so he didn't FAFO like he did for Obama and Biden, who were soooo predictable.  There's something to be said for a leader looking batcrap crazy.  I think historians refer to it as strategic ambiguity.

 

In any case, I don't know (or care) WHY Putin didn't attack during Trumps term. Just THAT he didn't attack and put the world at risk of Armageddon, until predictable Joe got in.

 

Edited September 19 by impulse

[candide]

On 9/19/2024 at 10:26 AM, frank83628 said:

 

It 's not about the picture itself, It's about the reason why Putin  was smiling! 😃

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812

 

At a news conference after the summit, President Trump was asked if he believed his own intelligence agencies or the Russian president when it came to the allegations of meddling in the elections.

"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he replied.

[Cameroni]

Putin is so smart, it's almost funny, he publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, knowing full well, that would make it more likely Trump would be elected

 

Election intereference right there, lol.

 

It even came up in the debate, Trump was able to claim, truthfully, that Russia's Putin endorsed Kamala Harris. 

 

Hilarious.

[frank83628]

2 minutes ago, candide said:

It 's not about the picture itself, It's about the reason why Putin  was smiling! 😃

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812

 

At a news conference after the summit, President Trump was asked if he believed his own intelligence agencies or the Russian president when it came to the allegations of meddling in the elections.

"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he replied.

you mean those intelligence agencies the claimed there were WMD's, babies being pulled from incubators and thrown on the floor, Assad gassing his own people,  Russian colusion, or the 51 that said the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation... you mean those ones? 

 

i had ever heard of Russian interference in elections when Obama won twice. not a peep, only after the old hag Clinton lost, after cheating and chucking out Bernie, similar to Biden getting chucked out.

[Cameroni]

14 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

you mean those intelligence agencies the claimed there were WMD's, babies being pulled from incubators and thrown on the floor, Assad gassing his own people,  Russian colusion, or the 51 that said the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation... you mean those ones? 

 

i had ever heard of Russian interference in elections when Obama won twice. not a peep, only after the old hag Clinton lost, after cheating and chucking out Bernie, similar to Biden getting chucked out.

Yah, it's basically different now because Trump has such a good relationship with Putin and Russia, obviously the Democrats are suddenly the anti-Russia party, Clinton started this nonsense.

[candide]

25 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

you mean those intelligence agencies the claimed there were WMD's, babies being pulled from incubators and thrown on the floor, Assad gassing his own people,  Russian colusion, or the 51 that said the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation... you mean those ones? 

 

i had ever heard of Russian interference in elections when Obama won twice. not a peep, only after the old hag Clinton lost, after cheating and chucking out Bernie, similar to Biden getting chucked out.

This Mueller report proving Russian interference, confirmed by a GOP Senate committee investigation! 😁

[rice555]

1 hour ago, candide said:

This Mueller report proving Russian interference, confirmed by a GOP Senate committee investigation! 😁

Why did the DOJ drop the Russian Troll Farm Case when they showed up in Fed Court?

Could it be, they didn't want it to "Discovery"?

[candide]

1 minute ago, rice555 said:

Why did the DOJ drop the Russian Troll Farm Case when they showed up in Fed Court?

Could it be, they didn't want it to "Discovery"?

Don't ask me, it was Trump's DOJ! 😀

[frank83628]

6 hours ago, candide said:

This Mueller report proving Russian interference, confirmed by a GOP Senate committee investigation! 😁

YAWN, some facebook adverts, wow

Edited September 19 by frank83628

[impulse]

16 hours ago, Social Media said:

Mueller’s investigation may not have resulted in Trump’s punishment, but it played a significant role in shaping public discourse on the integrity of American elections. As the nation heads toward another presidential race, the warnings from Mueller and his team resonate even more urgently. Their book arrives at a time when new reports suggest that Russian influence operations, this time targeting Vice President Kamala Harris, are already underway.

 

Wait.  Didn't we just have the most secure election in the history of the universe?

[Rimmer]

A fake meme and reply has been removed

[Chomper Higgot]

7 hours ago, Cameroni said:

Putin is so smart, it's almost funny, he publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, knowing full well, that would make it more likely Trump would be elected

 

Election intereference right there, lol.

 

It even came up in the debate, Trump was able to claim, truthfully, that Russia's Putin endorsed Kamala Harris. 

 

Hilarious.

That’s not the take away from the debate.

 

 

[MarkBR]

14 hours ago, Tug said:

He was spot on it was trumps pet AG bill Barr that betrayed the American people and the judicial system.Mr muller layed it all out it was not in his job to prosecute just convey the facts Barr covered for trump 

Why is Barr not in a federal prison?

[impulse]

8 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

 

yes,  the most safe and secure election in history and if you challenge that you are an extreme right wing maga racist,  youtube will block, censor or demonetise any accounts that question the MSM narrative.

and don't even dare to raise questions over covid, where 70% of MSM funding comes from big Pharma!!

And if they get the result they want, 2024 will be the most fair and secure election ever, and you won't be allowed to protest the results like they allowed in 2017 (when they didn't get the results they wanted) but didn't allow in 2021 (when they did get the results they wanted).

[frank83628]

6 minutes ago, impulse said:

And if they get the result they want, 2024 will be the most fair and secure election ever, and you won't be allowed to protest the results like they allowed in 2017 (when they didn't get the results they wanted) but didn't allow in 2021 (when they did get the results they wanted).

yep, Unfortunately the members here are way too old and brainwashed to ever change their minds. funny how the Democrats have gone from anti war, free speech and tolerance,  to pro war, totalitarian, censorship and persecution of political opponent’s without even realising.

 

everything they accuse trump and his supporters of, they are doing right now!!