This is a story that is flying under the radar. It’s one that would be the first thing out of the mouth of any American president meeting with the war criminal in the Kremlin in a few days, but I fully anticipate that nothing will be said. And woe betide any reporter asking questions about it to either Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump on Friday. But it is a thing that happened and something that should not be swept under the rug. That said, maybe we should be grateful we know about it at all.
Investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records that might contain information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes, according to several people briefed on the breach.
It is not clear what entity is responsible, whether an arm of Russian intelligence might be behind the intrusion or if other countries were also involved, which some of the people familiar with the matter described as a yearslong effort to infiltrate the system. Some of the searches included midlevel criminal cases in the New York City area and several other jurisdictions, with some cases involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames.
The disclosure comes as President Trump is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in Alaska on Friday, where Mr. Trump is planning to discuss his push to end the war in Ukraine.
Administrators with the court system recently informed Justice Department officials, clerks and chief judges in federal courts that “persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records,” according to an internal department memo and reviewed by The New York Times. The administrators also advised those officials to quickly remove the most sensitive documents from the system. […]
In recent weeks, judges of the Eastern District of New York have been taking corrective measures. On Friday, the chief judge of the district, Margo K. Brodie, issued an order prohibiting the uploading of sealed documents to PACER, the searchable public database for documents and court dockets. Ordinarily, sealed documents would be uploaded to the database, but behind a wall, in theory preventing people without the proper authority from seeing them. Now those sensitive documents will be uploaded to a separate drive, outside PACER.
This is no small deal here. Yes, most court documents are a matter of public record and easily searchable. But not every single one is and there are a great many court documents which are ordered under seal, for various reasons. Russia, of course, being an adversary would love to read every detail and know what we know. And Trump would be just fine with that. Trump only sees government in terms of money and if he can sell a state secret or better yet, not have to bother, just let Vladimir go in and take what he wants, then that’s fine with him.
Trump clearly never had any comprehension of state secrets or protocol or he wouldn’t have had boxes of Top Secret data in his Mar-a-Lago bathroom. So you know that this issue is of no concern to him one way or the other.
Just one more way Russia has intruded in America’s wellbeing that will go unaddressed and undealt with.
He should have been put under the jailhouse after discovering troves of classified documents in his resort. Of course, that would require a criminal justice system based on JUSTICE AND TRUTH. I can’t see how anything discovered matters anymore now that our election systems are now run by nazis.
Given Ts presumed: state of MIND; lack of CULTURE; and paucity of ACTION – on this matter. The main thing T will have on record is his visit to court and fawn the big V.
Not really a surprise that Trump brushed this off. When asked about Russia hacking U.S. court records, he basically said, “Are you surprised? That’s what they do.” He even added that he could bring it up with Putin, but it didn’t sound like he cared much.
The problem is this isn’t small. Federal court computers were breached, sealed and sensitive files may be exposed, and officials are treating it as very serious. It’s one thing to joke about hacking, but it’s another when national security could be on the line.