"Russia's actions were a threat to America's democracy," Mueller wrote in a 2020 Washington Post op-ed

[bigtree]

...excerpt from 2020 Robert S. Mueller III op-ed:

"Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood. By late 2016, the FBI had evidence that the Russians had signaled to a Trump campaign adviser that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate. And the FBI knew that the Russians had done just that: Beginning in July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails stolen by Russian military intelligence officers from the Clinton campaign. Other online personas using false names — fronts for Russian military intelligence — also released Clinton campaign emails."

"Following FBI Director James B. Comey’s termination in May 2017, the acting attorney general named me as special counsel and directed the special counsel’s office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The order specified lines of investigation for us to pursue, including any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign. One of our cases involved Stone, an official on the campaign until mid-2015 and a supporter of the campaign throughout 2016. Stone became a central figure in our investigation for two key reasons: He communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers."

"We now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate. We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts."

"Uncovering and tracing Russian outreach and interference activities was a complex task. The investigation to understand these activities took two years and substantial effort. Based on our work, eight individuals pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial, and more than two dozen Russian individuals and entities, including senior Russian intelligence officers, were charged with federal crimes."

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/11/mueller-stone-oped/

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia-Trump campaign ties, dies
https://apnews.com/article/robert-mueller-fbi-director-trump-russia-investigation-7aca939dc25d4652815376f73e0f9aaf

[dlk]

1. Billionaires and corporations wanted their tax cuts

They didn’t care how.

[flvegan]

2. What were the consequences for Russia again?

Sanctions? Seized some property from oligarchs. Did we really shake our fist at them hard enough?

Wow. Bet that did/will keep them from ever doing anything like that again.

[bigtree]

3. when Biden got into office

04/28/21
Biden on Russia: ‘I told them I would respond and we have’
President Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “understands” that actions by Moscow against the U.S. will incur consequences, pointing to a host of sanctions imposed on the Russian economy and individuals over election interference and a massive cyber hack of government and private businesses.

“With regard to Russia, I know it concerns some of you, but I made very clear to President Putin that while we don’t seek escalation — but their actions will have consequences if they turn out to be true, and they turned out to be true,” the president said during a speech to a joint session of Congress.

“I responded in a direct and proportionate way to Russia’s interference in our elections and cyberattacks on our government and businesses — and they did both of these things and I told them I would respond and we have.”

Biden in April imposed sanctions on Russia targeting the country’s sovereign debt. He also blacklisted a handful of technology companies, expelled Russian diplomats in the U.S. and sanctioned dozens of individuals over election interference and cyberattacks.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/550864-biden-on-russia-i-told-them-i-would-respond-and-we-have/

Biden administration announces major actions to tackle Russian efforts to influence 2024 election
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/politics/biden-administration-accuse-russia-election-influence-efforts/

Biden administration hits Russia with sanctions over efforts to manipulate U.S. opinion ahead of the election
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-administration-hit-russia-sanctions-trying-manipulate-us-opinion-rcna169541

When we look back at the first two months of the Trump Administration, this is what we see:

No Sanctions Removed: The Trump Administration has not removed or relaxed any of the US sanctions or export controls against Russia.

No New Sanctions on Anniversary of Invasion: For the first time since the invasion in 2022, the United States did not impose new sanctions against Russia around the anniversary of the invasion on February 24.

Biden Energy Sector Sanctions Allowed to Go Into Effect: The Trump Administration allowed the energy sector sanctions imposed at the end of the Biden Administration on January 10 to go into effect. This included a prohibition on US Persons providing petroleum services to anyone in Russia, which had come with a delayed effective date of February 27. The January 10 measures also included a series of wind-down general licenses that expired on February 27 and March 12. See our blog post on these January 10 sanctions here.

Ukraine National Emergency Continued for Another Year: As reported in the Federal Register on February 27, President Trump continued the national emergency with respect to Ukraine for another year, until March 6, 2026. This national emergency was first declared by President Obama in 2014 to address threats to the democracy and sovereignty of Ukraine.

This national emergency underpins a large number of sanctions against individuals and entities in Russia under Executive Order 13662 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. (Most of the post-2022 sanctions against Russia were based on a different national emergency declared by President Biden in 2021 in Executive Order 14024. However, in its final weeks, the outgoing Biden Administration imposed a number of sanctions under both EO 14024 and EO 13662 in an attempt to make the sanctions more difficult to remove later – see our blog post on the Biden Administration’s final Russia sanctions imposed on January 10 here and January 15 here.)

No New SDNs: The Trump Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC“) has not designated any new parties on its List of Specially Designated Nationals (“SDN List“) under the main Russia sanctions authorities, i.e., EO 14024 and EO 13662. However:

In a coordinated action with the UK and Australia, on February 11, OFAC added a Russian cybercrime operation to the SDN List. While this designation was made under a cybersecurity sanctions program and not the Russia sanctions, this designation of Russian parties was noteworthy given the broader discussions about Russia and cybersecurity happening in the public sphere. See our blog post on this development here.

We also noticed that when OFAC added several members of Ansarallah (the Houthis) to the SDN List on March 5, the press release highlighted that these individuals had negotiated Houthi weapons procurement from Russia. The press release also noted that OFAC was designating a Houthi-affiliated operative and his company that had recruited Yemeni civilians to fight on behalf of Russia in Ukraine. The press release goes into some detail on these allegations, referencing the word Russia more than 20 times and even naming President Putin once.

A Mixed Bag on Enforcement:

Task Force KleptoCapture, one of the Biden era enforcement initiatives, has been disbanded. This was announced in a memo issued by US Attorney General Pam Bondi on February 5. This was a task force within the US Department of Justice focused on enforcing the sanctions against Russian oligarchs. This was the task force behind many of the high-profile asset seizures that were widely reported in the press, such as luxury yachts.

Still, criminal enforcement activity has continued. There has been movement in several cases involving potential violations of export controls prohibited exports of aircraft parts to Russia, including this indictment on February 13 and this sentencing on February 21.

https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/us-russia-sanctions-under-trump-current-state-of-play/

October 24, 2025
EU, US and UK Ratchet Up Russia Sanctions

In significant parallel actions this week, the EU and US imposed new sanctions on Russia. While the EU’s 19th sanctions package is much broader in scope, the measures overlap in their focus on the Russian energy sector, with the US imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil majors, OJSC Rosneft Oil Company (“Rosneft”) and Lukoil OAO (“Lukoil”) and the EU imposing a full ban on Russia-origin liquified natural gas (“LNG”), among other energy sector…
https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/eu-us-and-uk-rachet-up-russia-sanctions/

September 3, 2025
New DoD Rule Targets Consulting Services Contractors that Also Work With the Governments of China or Russia, State Sponsors of Terrorism, or Certain Sanctioned Entities

On August 25, 2025, the US Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued a Final Rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (“DFARS”) to prohibit DoD contracting officers from awarding certain consulting services contracts to contractors where they or their subsidiaries or affiliates hold contracts and subcontracts that involve providing “consulting services” to “covered foreign entities” (“CFEs”) unless they implement a conflict-of-interest mitigation plan. The prohibition applies specifically to contracts assigned a North American Industry Classification…

https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/new-dod-rule-targets-consulting-services-contractors-that-also-work-with-the-governments-of-china-or-russia-state-sponsors-of-terrorism-or-certain-sanctioned-entities/

The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the next time the country holds a major election
https://apnews.com/article/trump-election-security-fbi-cisa-foreign-interference-98f1e17c8a6d5923db945a27f06458e7

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats
The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-russia-hacking-cyber-security

[bigtree]

4. reminder

Joe Cooprider @joecooprider 5h
Reminder that Mueller indicted 26 Russians and 8 Americans for working together to interfere with the election. All 8 Americans were convicted in court, but 5 were pardoned by Trump.

[Uncle Joe]

5. I imagine that Putin feels the same way about Mueller's death as does *rump.

Thanks for the thread bigtree