Impeachment proceedings against Trump

Did John Podesta deny CIA and FBI access to DNC server, as Donald Trump claims?

Trump tweeted that "everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA."

Trump’s premise here is wrong. Podesta had nothing to do with the DNC server because he didn’t work at the DNC; he worked for Clinton’s campaign. The DNC claimed they received no direct requests from the CIA, and the CIA did not comment.

The DNC says it cooperated with the FBI, providing information on the server through a third-party vendor.The FBI provided no comment, but then-FBI director Comey said it was an appropriate substitute.

We rate this statement False.

As I posted in the American Intelligence and Election Hacking thread (including a link to the indictment), it was the Russians who spearfished Podesta and got into the DNC server.

Mueller Just Uncovered a Core Russian Conspiracy
The special counsel's latest indictment reaches back to his investigation's origin story: the hacking of the 2016 election.
DAVID A. GRAHAM, The Atlantic | JUL 13, 2018

A grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Friday indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, charging them with hacking intended to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

The indictment, sought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, charge the defendants with hacking into computers and email systems of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. The hackers also allegedly broke into computer systems of an unidentified state board of elections, stealing personal information for 500,000 voters.

Friday’s indictment is important because the hacking of the DNC was the origin story for the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The DNC announced in June 2016 that its computer networks had been infiltrated, and security experts quickly concluded that Russia was behind the break-in. Further investigation by multiple American intelligence committees reached the same conclusion.

“The object of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the indictment states.

The indictment also says that the GRU used an outside organization to help disseminate the documents. Though it is not named, the details indicate it is WikiLeaks.

Is WikiLeaks a Russian Front?
The idea that the putative transparency group served as a connection between Moscow and the president’s associates is starting to become clearer.
DAVID A. GRAHAM, The Atlantic | NOV 29, 2018

Until recently, the connection between those Russian efforts and Trump allies has remained somewhat obscure and speculative. But recent developments have started to flesh out the picture. Russia used WikiLeaks as a conduit—witting or unwitting—and WikiLeaks, in turn, appears to have been in touch with Trump allies. The key remaining questions are what WikiLeaks knew and what Trump himself knew.

Some historical perspective on him:
The Astonishing Transformation of Julian Assange
Views of the WikiLeaks founder have shifted as American partisans project their own priorities onto him.
DAVID A. GRAHAM, The Atlantic | JAN 5, 2017

Some food for thought: if InfoWars and Q Anon are fake, and they are saying that it was Seth Rich who leaked the emails then, ergo...

If you find yourself agreeing with con artists and fraudsters, perhaps what you think is true quite likely is, in fact, not. Just sayin’.