Other Potential Campaign Interest in Russian Hacked Materials

¶Throughout 2016, the Trump Campaign expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's private email server and whether approximately 30,000 emails from that server had in fact been permanently destroyed, as reported by the media. Several individuals associated with the Campaign were contacted in 2016 about various efforts to obtain the missing Clinton emails and other stolen material in support of the Trump Campaign. Some of these contacts were met with skepticism, and nothing came of them; others were pursued to some degree. The investigation did not find evidence that the Trump Campaign recovered any such Clinton emails, or that these contacts were part of a coordinated effort between Russia and the Trump Campaign.

Henry Oknyansky (a/k/a Henry Greenberg)

¶In the spring of 2016, Trump Campaign advisor Michael Caputo learned through a Florida-based Russian business partner that another Florida-based Russian, Henry Oknyansky (who also went by the name Henry Greenberg), claimed to have information pertaining to Hillary Clinton. Caputo notified Roger Stone and brokered communication between Stone and Oknyansky. Oknyansky and Stone set up a May 2016 in-person meeting.²⁶⁰²⁶⁰ Caputo 5/2/18 302, at 4; Oknyansky 7/13/18 302, at 1.

¶Oknyansky was accompanied to the meeting by Alexei Rasin, a Ukrainian associate involved in Florida real estate. At the meeting, Rasin offered to sell Stone derogatory information on Clinton that Rasin claimed to have obtained while working for Clinton. Rasin claimed to possess financial statements demonstrating Clinton's involvement in money laundering with Rasin's companies. According to Oknyansky, Stone asked if the amounts in question totaled millions of dollars but was told it was closer to hundreds of thousands. Stone refused the offer, stating that Trump would not pay for opposition research.²⁶¹²⁶¹ Oknyansky 7/13/18 302, at 1-2.

¶Oknyansky claimed to the Office that Rasin's motivation was financial. According to Oknyansky, Rasin had tried unsuccessfully to shop the Clinton information around to other interested parties, and Oknyansky would receive a cut if the information was sold.²⁶²²⁶² Oknyansky 7/13/18 302, at 2. Rasin is noted in public source documents as the director and/or registered agent for a number of Florida companies, none of which appears to be connected to Clinton. The Office found no other evidence that Rasin worked for Clinton or any Clinton-related entities.

¶In their statements to investigators, Oknyansky and Caputo had contradictory recollections about the meeting. Oknyansky claimed that Caputo accompanied Stone to the meeting and provided an introduction, whereas Caputo did not tell us that he had attended and claimed that he was never told what information Oknyansky offered. Caputo also stated that he was unaware Oknyansky sought to be paid for the information until Stone informed him after the fact.²⁶³²⁶³ Caputo 5/2/18 302, at 4; Oknyansky 7/13/18 302, at 1.

¶The Office did not locate Rasin in the United States, although the Office confirmed Rasin had been issued a Florida driver's license. The Office otherwise was unable to determine the content and origin of the information he purportedly offered to Stone. Finally, the investigation did not identify evidence of a connection between the outreach or the meeting and Russian interference efforts.

Campaign Efforts to Obtain Deleted Clinton Emails

¶After candidate Trump stated on July 27, 2016, that he hoped Russia would "find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump asked individuals affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails.²⁶⁴²⁶⁴ Flynn 4/25/18 302, at 5-6; Flynn 5/1/18 302, at 1-3. Michael Flynn—who would later serve as National Security Advisor in the Trump Administration—recalled that Trump made this request repeatedly, and Flynn subsequently contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the emails.²⁶⁵²⁶⁵ Flynn 5/1/18 302, at 1-3.

¶Barbara Ledeen and Peter Smith were among the people contacted by Flynn. Ledeen, a long-time Senate staffer who had previously sought the Clinton emails, provided updates to Flynn about her efforts throughout the summer of 2016.²⁶⁶²⁶⁶ Flynn 4/25/18 302, at 7; Flynn 5/4/18 302, at 1-2; Flynn 11/29/17 302, at 7-8. Smith, an investment advisor who was active in Republican politics, also attempted to locate and obtain the deleted Clinton emails.²⁶⁷²⁶⁷ Flynn 11/29/17 302, at 7.

¶Ledeen began her efforts to obtain the Clinton emails before Flynn's request, as early as December 2015.²⁶⁸²⁶⁸ Szobocsan 3/29/17 302, at 1. On December 3, 2015, she emailed Smith a proposal to obtain the emails, stating, "Here is the proposal I briefly mentioned to you. The person I described to you would be happy to talk with you either in person or over the phone. The person can get the emails which 1. Were classified and 2. Were purloined by our enemies. That would demonstrate what needs to be demonstrated."²⁶⁹²⁶⁹ 12/3/15 Email, Ledeen to Smith.

¶Attached to the email was a 25-page proposal stating that the "Clinton email server was, in all likelihood, breached long ago," and that the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian intelligence services could "re-assemble the server's email content."²⁷⁰²⁷⁰ 12/3/15 Email, Ledeen to Smith (attachment). The proposal called for a three-phase approach. The first two phases consisted of open-source analysis. The third phase consisted of checking with certain intelligence sources "that have access through liaison work with various foreign services" to determine if any of those services had gotten to the server. The proposal noted, "Even if a single email was recovered and the providence [sic] of that email was a foreign service, it would be catastrophic to the Clinton campaign[.]" Smith forwarded the email to two colleagues and wrote, "we can discuss to whom it should be refe1Ted." 271 On December 16, 2015, Smith infonned Ledeen that he declined to paiiicipate in her "initiative." According to one of Smith's business associates, Smith believed Ledeen 's initiative was not viable at that time.272

¶Just weeks after Tnnnp 's July 2016 request to find the Clinton emails, however, Smith tried to locate and obtain the emails himself. He created a company, raised tens of thousands of dollai·s, and recrnited security experts and business associates. Smith made claims to others involved in the effo1i (and those from whom he sought funding) that he was in contact with hackers with "ties and affiliations to Russia" who had access to the emails, and that his effo1is were coordinated with the Tnnnp Campaign.²⁷³²⁷³ 8/31/ 16 Email, Smith to Smith.

¶On August 28, 2016, Smith sent an email from an enc1ypted account with the subject "Sec. Clinton 's unsecured private email server" to an undisclosed list of recipients, including Campaign co-chainnan Sam Clovis. The email stated that Smith was " [j]ust finishing two days of sensitive meetings here in DC with involved groups to poke and probe on the above. It is cleai· that the Clinton's home-based, unprotected server was hacked with ease by both State-related players, and private mercenaries. Parties with vaiying interests, ai·e circling to release ahead of the election." 274

¶On September 2, 2016, Smith directed a business associate to establish KLS Reseai·ch LLC in fmiherance ofhis search for the deleted Clinton emails.²⁷⁵²⁷⁵ Szobocsan 3/29/ 18 302, at 2. One of the pmposes ofKLS Research was to manage the funds Smith raised in support of his initiative.²⁷⁶²⁷⁶ Szobocsan 3/29/ 18 302, at 3. 2n Financial Institution Record of Peter Smith and KLS Research LLC, 10/31/17 [Q]lm [Redacted: (b) (3)] 10/ 11/ 16 Email, Smith to KLS Research received over $30,000 during the presidential campaign, although Smith represented that he raised even more money.277

¶Smith recrnited multiple people for his initiative, including security expe1is to search for and authenticate the emails.²⁷⁸²⁷⁸ Tait 8/22/ 17 302, at 3; York 7/ 12/17 302, at 1-2; York 11/22/ 17 302, at 1. In eai·ly September 2016, as paii ofhis recrnitment and fundraising effo1i, Smith circulated a document stating that his initiative was "in coordination" with the Tnnnp Campaign, "to the extent pennitted as an independent expenditure organization." 279 The document listed multiple individuals affiliated with the Trnmp Cainpaign, including Flynn, Clovis, Bannon, and Kellyanne Conway.²⁸⁰²⁸⁰ The same recruitment document listed Jerome Corsi under "Independent Groups/Organizations/Individuals," and described him as an "established author and writer from the right on President Obama and Sec. Clinton." The investigation established that Smith communicated with at least Flynn and Clovis about his search for the deleted Clinton emails,²⁸¹²⁸¹ Flynn 11/29/17 302, at 7-8; 10/15/16 Email, Smith to Flynn et al.; 8/28/16 Email, Smith to Smith (bcc: Clovis et al.). but the Office did not identify evidence that any of the listed individuals initiated or directed Smith's efforts.

¶In September 2016, Smith and Ledeen got back in touch with each other about their respective efforts. Ledeen wrote to Smith, "wondering if you had some more detailed reports or memos or other data you could share because we have come a long way in our efforts since we last visited. . . . We would need as much technical discussion as possible so we could marry it against the new data we have found and then could share it back to you 'your eyes only.'"²⁸²²⁸² 9/16/16 Email, Ledeen to Smith.

¶Ledeen claimed to have obtained a trove of emails (from what she described as the "dark web") that purported to be the deleted Clinton emails. Ledeen wanted to authenticate the emails and solicited contributions to fund that effort. Erik Prince provided funding to hire a tech advisor to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. According to Prince, the tech advisor determined that the emails were not authentic.²⁸³²⁸³ Prince 4/4/18 302, at 4-5.

¶A backup of Smith's computer contained two files that had been downloaded from WikiLeaks and that were originally attached to emails received by John Podesta. The files on Smith's computer had creation dates of October 2, 2016, which was prior to the date of their release by WikiLeaks. Forensic examination, however, established that the creation date did not reflect when the files were downloaded to Smith's computer. (It appears the creation date was when WikiLeaks staged the document for release, as discussed in Volume I, Section III.B.3.c, supra.²⁸⁴²⁸⁴ The forensic analysis of Smith's computer devices found that Smith used an older Apple operating system that would have preserved that October 2, 2016 creation date when it was downloaded (no matter what day it was in fact downloaded by Smith). See Volume I, Section III.B.3.c, supra. The Office tested this theory in March 2019 by downloading the two files found on Smith's computer from WikiLeaks's site using the same Apple operating system on Smith's computer; both files were successfully downloaded and retained the October 2, 2016 creation date. See SM-2284941, serial 62.Show full note) The investigation did not otherwise identify evidence that Smith obtained the files before their release by WikiLeaks.

¶Smith continued to send emails to an undisclosed recipient list about Clinton's deleted emails until shortly before the election. For example, on October 28, 2016, Smith wrote that there was a "tug-of-war going on within WikiLeaks over its planned releases in the next few days," and that WikiLeaks "has maintained that it will save its best revelations for last, under the theory this allows little time for response prior to the U.S. election November 8."²⁸⁵²⁸⁵ 10/28/16 Email, Smith to Smith. An attachment to the email claimed that WikiLeaks would release "All 33k deleted Emails" by "November 1st." No emails obtained from Clinton's server were subsequently released.

¶Smith drafted multiple emails stating or intimating that he was in contact with Russian hackers. For example, in one such email, Smith claimed that, in August 2016, KLS Research had organized meetings with parties who had access to the deleted Clinton emails, including parties with "ties and affiliations to Russia."²⁸⁶²⁸⁶ 8/31/16 Email, Smith to Smith. The investigation did not identify evidence that any such meetings occurred. Associates and security experts who worked with Smith on the initiative did not believe that Smith was in contact with Russian hackers and were aware of no such connection.²⁸⁷²⁸⁷ Safron 3/20/18 302, at 3; Szobocsan 3/29/18 302, at 6. The investigation did not establish that Smith was in contact with Russian hackers or that Smith, Ledeen, or other individuals in touch with the Trump Campaign ultimately obtained the deleted Clinton emails.

¶In sum, the investigation established that the GRU hacked into email accounts of persons affiliated with the Clinton Campaign, as well as the computers of the DNC and DCCC. The GRU then exfiltrated data related to the 2016 election from these accounts and computers, and disseminated that data through fictitious online personas (DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0) and later through WikiLeaks. The investigation also established that the Trump Campaign displayed interest in the WikiLeaks releases, and that former Campaign member Roger Stone was in contact with the Campaign about those releases, claiming advance knowledge of more to come. As explained in Volume I, Section V.B, infra, the evidence was sufficient to support computer-intrusion (and other) charges against GRU officers for their role in election-related hacking. The evidence, however, was not sufficient to charge WikiLeaks, its founder (Assange), or Stone for participating in the hacking conspiracy with those GRU officers.