White rabbit indeed.
I read this and have been reflecting on how I, personally, and all my friends will feel when they find out that the leak on this one was the Russians. I've been dithering on this one too long, though. I've decided I need to print me up some patches: Except instead of "Федеральная служба безопасности" I want It's probably too subtle by half but that's how I roll.
MEANS The Russians have shown themselves capable of surveillance in places we don't expect. They're also good at it. That assumes of course that they had a bug wherever Ryan, McCarthy and McMullin et. al. had their conversation. They probably didn't. Maybe someone had a pearlcorder going, or their iphone on or whatever. Maybe the Russians had someone's phone compromised using NSA tools, or tools of their own. Maybe someone had that recording in their files and the Russians hacked them. None of these are a reaching. MOTIVE Occam's Razor on the Russian hacking was not to instill a puppet, but to maximize chaos within the federal government. Now that it starts to look like they've gotten all the mileage they can out of Trump, it's time to start new fun. OPPORTUNITY This one kinda speaks for itself. I am not saying that of course the Russians did this. I'm saying that it could be the Russians, because they definitely benefit from all this.
I'm almost 100% sure they were indeed kidding, and this article is part of a smear campaign. Since I'm pseudonymous here, though, I can promote that. We're building up quite the laundry list of original files/documents I'd like to get my hands on.
I am 100% sure they were kidding, but - they were "kidding" about serious allegations that they were uniquely in a position to investigate - they were "kidding" about an existential threat to American democracy - they were "kidding" about a potential scandal that, even then, clearly had far-reaching implications - they ceased "kidding" about it - with shocking earnestness - as soon as they realized what their conversation would look like were it to come out - they flatly denied it happened when the Washington Post said they'd heard about the conversation - they stated the transcript was a fabrication when they were told it existed - they said they were "kidding" as soon as the Post said they'd heard a recording They know they should have done more. They were busted red-handed KNOWING they weren't doing what they were supposed to. And they deserve to burn.