Russian hacking, social media ads, and nude selfies...

Accused Russian Troll Farm Casually Mentions Mueller ‘Collected a Nude Selfie’ 

One of the Russian companies indicted by Robert Mueller over its alleged involvement in an infamous trolling operation during the 2016 presidential election filed a motion on Thursday chock full of jabs at the special counsel’s legal knowledge and respect for the rule of law. And in the process, they casually note that Mueller has apparently collected a “nude selfie” of someone.

“Could the manner in which he collected a nude selfie really threaten the national security of the United States?” Dubelier asks out loud.

Law&Crime reached out to Dubelier and the other attorney listed on the filing for clarification about who exactly took the selfie and how it possibly pertains to the case, but no response was forthcoming at the time of publication.

At the core of Thursday’s defense motion is the argument that Mueller is unlawfully keeping “millions of pages of non-classified discovery” materials away from the defendant’s own eyes. At issue here is the fact that Mueller is attempting to have ex parte–one party only–discussions with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia regarding continued discovery in the case. Concord Management describes Mueller’s proposed limits as a bid for “the Court [to] deny all allegedly sensitive discovery to Concord.”

In layman's terms, Mueller and his team is holding back disclosure to the Russian companies under the guise that much of their evidence is considered "sensitive".  As pointed out by the legal back and forth, it's pretty much unprecedented that a prosecutor gets to simply withhold evidence from a defendant under the notion that they believe that information is "sensitive (rather than rely on official classifications of something being sensitive or classified). Apparently over three million documents defined as  "sensitive" have been submitted to the court (including the nude selfie).  On top of the nude selfie, some of the other sensitive materials include documents such as promotional emails for Airlines.

While I sort of understand that our American courts are likely going to be harder on a Russian defendant than an American company (or citizen), these are still precedents being set, and we are ultimately a country of laws. It would seem important for us to follow them pretty much in all cases.