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The meetings began in early 2017 after a massive 2016 breach of top-secret cyber weapons from the NSA. U.S. intelligence authorities believe the Russians obtained the documents through a mysterious hacker group called the Shadow Brokers, who gained access to many of the hacking tools used in foreign espionage by the U.S.
The NSA is now trying to contain the damage after vital information on America’s espionage tools was outed.
Russians involved in the meetings have also begun offering to sell information on Trump campaign officials in connection with the concerted Russian government effort to influence the 2016 election.
According to a New York Times report published Friday, U.S. intelligence officials said that they told a Russian offering both NSA cyber weapons and material related to President Trump that they did not want the information about the real estate mogul.
U.S. spies agreed to a $1 million payout to obtain the NSA tools from the Russian, according to the report. They paid $100,000 as a first installment.
But the Russian never gave U.S. agents the NSA tools, the Times reported. Instead, they were handed salacious and unverified information about Trump. After that, the U.S. officials ended their deal with the Russian due to concerns about possible political fallout and fears of a Russian plan to stir chaos within the U.S. government.
The Russian operators’ connections with the Russian government remain unclear.
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- Discussion
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Russians offering to sell dirt on Trump-Russia connections to US intel officials: report https://t.co/WRx8jwB7A4 pic.twitter.com/mos3vM3kY2
— The Hill (@thehill) February 10, 2018
According to the @nytimes, a Russian sold phony secrets on “Trump” to the U.S. Asking price was $10 million, brought down to $1 million to be paid over time. I hope people are now seeing & understanding what is going on here. It is all now starting to come out – DRAIN THE SWAMP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018This is not actually what the story says. https://t.co/kk0yhQGIGE
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 10, 2018
Trump appears to be working in concert with Moscow on this. Russians ran a likely dangle op (https://t.co/xhLLqF1j9m) to set up US intel, which assessed and rejected it. Having taken the op as far as it could, Moscow likely planted the story. Now, Trump echoes Moscow's narrative. https://t.co/sCgOpU1c2H
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) February 10, 2018Basic Russian active measures are being employed, and Trump is caught red handed spreading lies to discredit his/the Kremlins enemies (USA) https://t.co/IOLEnxzsBI
— SchindlersCat (@FelisDave) February 10, 2018The Russians never change and we never learn. You got played, @nytimes — but so did the US IC.
Same old, same old….https://t.co/1wuJoHfNsN
— John Schindler (@20committee) February 13, 2018
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