NATION/WORLD
Saturday, July 14, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 9A
A dozen Russians indicted for meddling in election
paign’s final stretch.
The charges say the Rus-
sian defendants, using a per-
sona known as Guccifer 2.0,
in August 2016 contacted
a person in touch with the
Trump campaign to offer
help. And they say that on
the same day Trump said in
a speech, “Russia, if you’re
listening, I hope you’re able
to find the 30,000 emails that
are missing,” Russian hackers
tried for the first time to break
into email accounts used by
Clinton’s personal office.
Mueller did not allege that
Trump campaign associates
were involved in the hacking
effort, that Americans were
knowingly in touch with
Russian intelligence offi-
cers or that any vote tallies
were altered by hacking. The
White House seized on those
points in a statement that
offered no condemnation of
Russian election interference.
It was unclear whether the
indictment might factor into
Trump’s meeting with Putin
on Monday.
He
has
repeatedly
expressed skepticism about
Russian involvement in the
hacking while being accused
by Democrats of cozying
up to the Russian president.
Trump complained about the
Russia investigation hours
before the indictment, saying
the “stupidity” was making it
“very hard to do something
with Russia.”
The Kremlin, meanwhile,
denied anew that it tried to
sway the election. “The Rus-
sian state has never interfered
By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Twelve Russian military
intelligence officers hacked
into the Clinton presiden-
tial campaign and Demo-
cratic Party and released tens
of thousands of private com-
munications in a sweeping
conspiracy by the Kremlin to
meddle in the 2016 U.S. elec-
tion, according to an indict-
ment announced days before
President Donald Trump’s
summit with Russian Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin.
The indictment represents
special counsel Robert Muel-
ler’s first charges against
Russian government offi-
cials for interfering in Amer-
ican politics, an effort U.S.
intelligence agencies say was
aimed at helping the Trump
campaign and harming Dem-
ocratic opponent, Hillary
Clinton. The case follows
after a separate indictment
that accused Russians of
using social media to sow dis-
cord among American voters.
The 29-page indictment
lays out how, months before
Americans went to the polls,
Russians schemed to break
into key Democratic email
accounts, including those
belonging to Clinton cam-
paign chairman John Podesta,
the Democratic National
Committee and the Demo-
cratic Congressional Cam-
paign Committee. Stolen
emails, many politically dam-
aging for Clinton, appeared
on WikiLeaks in the cam-
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein speaks during a news conference at the
Department of Justice, Friday, July 13, 2018, in Washington.
and has no intention of inter-
fering in the U.S. elections,”
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser,
Yuri Ushakov, said Friday.
The indictment identi-
fies the defendants as officers
with Russia’s Main Intelli-
gence Directorate of the Gen-
eral Staff, also known as
GRU. If that link is estab-
lished, it would shatter the
Kremlin denials of the Rus-
sian state’s involvement in
the U.S. elections given that
the GRU is part of the state
machine.
The Russian defendants
are not in custody, and it
is not clear they will ever
appear in American court,
though the Justice Depart-
ment has recently seen value
in indicting foreign hackers in
absentia as public deterrence.
The indictment accuses
the Russian hackers, starting
in March 2016, of covertly
monitoring the computers of
dozens of Democratic offi-
cials and volunteers, implant-
ing malicious computer code
known as malware to explore
the networks and steal data
and of phishing emails to gain
access to accounts.
One attempt at interfer-
ence came hours after Trump,
in a July 27, 2016, speech,
suggested Russians look for
emails that Clinton said she
had deleted from her tenure
as secretary of state.
“Russia, if you’re listen-
ing,” Trump said, “I hope
you’re able to find the 30,000
emails that are missing.”
That evening, the indict-
ment says, the Russians
attempted to break into email
accounts used by Clinton’s
personal office, along with
76 Clinton campaign email
addresses.
By June 2016, the defen-
dants, relying on fictional
personas like DCLeaks and
Guccifer 2.0, began planning
the release of tens of thou-
sands of stolen emails, the
indictment alleges.
The Podesta emails pub-
lished by WikiLeaks dis-
played the private com-
munications,
including
deliberations about messag-
ing that played into attacks
that Clinton was calculating
and a political flip-flopper.
Private speeches she gave to
financial industry firms were
particularly damaging within
the left wing of the Demo-
cratic party and among inde-
pendents frustrated with the
influence of Wall Street in
politics.
The indictment alleges
that Guccifer 2.0 was in touch
with multiple Americans in
the summer of 2016 about the
pilfered material, including
an unidentified congressio-
nal candidate who requested
and then received stolen
information
On Aug. 15, 2016, the
indictment says, Guccifer 2.0
reached out to someone in
contact with the Trump cam-
paign and asked the person
if they had seen anything
“interesting in the docs I
posted?” Guccifer 2.0 said it
would be a “great pleasure”
to help.
Prosecutors say weeks
later, Guccifer 2.0 referred
to a stolen DCCC document
posted online and asked the
person, “what do u think of
the info on the turnout model
for the democrats entire
presidential campaign.” The
person responded, “(p)retty
standard.”
FUEL: Law went into effect in 1951, concerned with safety of drivers and passengers
people (mostly out-of-town-
ers) try to pump their own
gas at Heller & Sons they
are always asked to return to
their vehicle and let an atten-
dant take care of it so that the
station can comply with the
law.
“We have people try and
do that, but they can’t, so we
have to stop them,” he said.
Heller said many custom-
ers — particularly the elderly
— actually prefer to stay in
their car while someone
pumps their gas for them,
especially when the weather
is bad. But others would
prefer to handle it them-
selves. Heller said motorcy-
cle owners tend to be partic-
ular about making sure no
gas is dripped on their bikes,
for example, and some riders
from out of state will com-
plain when told they aren’t
allowed to pump their own.
Heller said he believes the
steps the legislature has taken
to roll back the self-service
requirement in some coun-
ties are a “stepping stone”
toward eventually letting
everyone in Oregon pump
Continued from 1A
mation officer for the Oregon
State Fire Marshal, wrote in
an email. “These are gener-
ally complaint driven.”
He said he did not know of
any law enforcement agen-
cies that cited for those vio-
lations, and he was unsure if
they even had the authority
to do so.
He said citations from the
fire marshal’s office are “not
common.”
“OSFM receives very few
complaints of self-serve vio-
lations,” Hoover said.
While gas stations can
be fined for allowing peo-
ple to pump their own gas,
there is nothing in the Ore-
gon State Statutes or recent
bills that specifies a fine or
other penalty for someone
caught pumping their own
gas. Hoover confirmed that
state statute only authorizes
the OSFM to regulate sta-
tions and their owners, not
customers.
Mike Heller, owner of
Heller & Sons Distributing
Inc. in Hermiston, said when
their own gas. All joking
aside (the rest of the coun-
try had a field day on social
media earlier this year mak-
ing fun of Oregonians who
don’t know how to pump
their own gas), Heller said
the 48 other states that allow
self-service have shown that
everyday drivers are, in fact,
capable of refueling their
own vehicles.
However, he also appre-
ciates that it is easier on
some people to let an atten-
dant pump it for them and he
likes the opportunity to pro-
vide more jobs in the com-
munity. Being a fuel station
attendant is a good first job
for teens, he said, because it
teaches them how to interact
with the public while on the
job. He said he would keep
attendants on hand even if
the law changed to include
Umatilla County.
“I’ll offer full-serve until
it’s not economically feasi-
ble,” he said.
The Legislature imple-
mented Oregon’s ban on
self-service in 1951. Reasons
listed within the bill include:
• Dispensing Class A
flammable liquids without
proper safety training can be
dangerous.
• If customers leave their
vehicles it puts them at risk
of crime or personal injury
such as slipping on wet
pavement.
• Gas stations would have
to pay higher liability insur-
ance rates if customers are
exposed to such dangers.
• Disabled and elderly
customers will not be singled
out in paying for the higher
cost of full service.
• Exposure to toxic fumes
from the gas is a health haz-
ard, particularly to pregnant
customers.
• Self-service in other
states “does not provide a
sustained reduction in fuel
prices charged to customers.”
• Self-service decreases
employment opportunities
for young people.
• Small children are put in
danger when they are left in a
vehicle while the driver goes
inside to pay.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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