Florida GOP consultant provides an example of colluding with Russian operatives

“Collusion” is a term that’s been used heavily in the news over the last year. Yes, the Trump campaign had plenty of connections to Russian officials, and yes, they cheered on the hacking events that dumped emails from the DNC and personal accounts of Democratic workers. But was there actually collusion with the Russians? If there was, what would it look like?

As it happens, there’s a fantastic example of a Republican in Florida who did just that: Colluded with the Russians over their efforts to interfere in the election. Aaron Nevins is an organizer for the Florida Republican Party. He’s a former chief of staff for a state senator who runs two consulting companies. He helps with local candidates, “grass root” efforts, and is the man behind the website “HelloFLA!.” When the news first broke that DNC accounts had been hacked, Nevins did what any good registered lobbyist and political consultant might do—he asked to get in on it.

When Guccifer 2.0 issued an open invitation to any journalist who wanted information, Nevins said he responded affirmatively through a Twitter message. He said he didn’t follow up and didn’t hear anything for 10 days.

Guccifer 2.0 responded shortly before the Florida primary contests in August, he said. Guccifer 2.0 wanted to know his email capacity, and Nevins said he set up a Dropbox account that allowed him to receive a large volume of data — which the hacker deposited there.

Shortly before the Florida primary, the Russian hackers fronted by “Guccifer 2.0” dumped over two gigabytes of email on this GOP operative. How did he respond? He helped them sort through what they had, helped validated the information, and worked with them to explain what needed to be emphasized, and how to get the greatest value from their hack …

… going through what the hacker sent as someone who “actually knows what some of these documents mean,” the GOP consultant said he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”

And that’s a definitive example of collusion.

from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2rYFiDL