Our condolences to his family. That is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Have a good weekend and good night for all of us here at nbc news headquarters in new york. So it is a small enough range of what theyre looking for aesthetically that im thinking you beak have to register as having acceptable haircut a or acceptable haircut b. Those are sort of the two lanes that are available 0 to you. Under hair cut a, we have ben affleck. Or josh brolin or mark wahlberg, or jake gyllenhaal, or Chris Helmsworth or the great Anderson Cooper or the great jimmy fallon or that guy from The Hurt Locker who was so good. Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Unquote, contract that included the exclues you be rights to publish her story about having this alleged longrunning extramarital affair with donald trump. Having obtained those exclues you be rights to publish that story, American Media and david pecker decided to not run that story. So that was widely viewed as whats called a catch and kill deal in wilAmerican Media beak told basically dg candidate trump the favor of making sure that embarrassing story about this alleged affair would never run in print. So American Media paid miss mcdougal in august 2016, late in the game, donald trump was already the republican nominee for president that the point. Now, did the president s have this affair . She says yes. He says no. You say la, la, lala, im plugging my ears. Stop talking about there, i dont want to know. I understand. But federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into whether that transaction was an effort
president s lawyer mike cohen are now officially in possession of all of the evidence they are going to review to decide whether to try to bring federal criminal charges against mr. Cohen. The Court Appointed official, the Special Master who had been appointed to review all the evidence that was seized from cohen to see if any of it has to be kept from prosecutors because its covered by Attorney Client privilege, that process has come to a conclusion. Weve heard that both from the Special Master herself and confirmed by sdny. At the conclusion of that, only a tiny fraction of the nearly 4 million files federal agents seized when they raided his office is, apartment and hotel room turned out to be protected by Attorney Client privilege. Only a tiny fraction of those documents were held back. The rest have been given to sdny. Those prosecutors at sdny we believe from the wall street reporting, we believe they have convened a grand jury to consider account Michael Cohen matter, or that is considering the Michael Cohen matter. Those prosecutors are now in the possession of all the evidence that they need to make their own decision on whether or not to ask that federal grand jury and sdny to bring charges against cohen. In addition to bank fraud Andtach Fraud charges that are a little bit like what Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been facing, one of the other issues reportedly under consideration by federal prosecutors and this Be Federal Grand Jury in new york senior Michael Cohens involvement in that alleged payment to cover up that alleged affair. I mean to compensate Karen Mcdougal for how much mens journal wanted and needed to put her on their cover instead of ben affleck again. Why would the president be talking about reimbursing American Media for their contract to Karen Mcdougal if the contract was really just to put her on Fitness Magazines . Why would the president be talking to his lawyer about
paying that money back . So its ticktock at the u. S. Attorneys office in the Southern District of new york. For what its worth, that is the same federal Prosecutors Office that brought multiple felony charges this week against Republican Congress man chris collins, the first member of congress who endorsed trump as president , he served as a Senior Member of the trump transition and now arrested and indicted. Same federal prosecutors that are considering Michael Cohen. Its ticktock at Southern District of new york for the president s lawyer. And apparently its also ticktock in virginia at the criminal trial of the president s campaign chairman. And boy, did this not go the way we thought it would today. This was humbling. We really thought, i really thought with Confidence Heading into today we knew what was going to happen. Judge has been keeping such a tight rein on the way this trial has been going, it seemed quite clear the way this was going to
unfold right through the end we thought for sure, the prosecution would rest their case by the end of today. Then the defense woes have to decide whether or not theyre going to call any witnesses to testify in manaforts behalf. Then closing statements and the whole thing would be done. It didnt unfold that way today. The prosecution has not rested its case. And the reason that happened is because will the whole day in court was taken up today in a mysterious series of conferences at the judges bench between the judge and the lawyers on both sides. Also meetings apparently in the judges chambers where nobody could see them. At one point the judge himself left the courtroom and appeared to walk off not in the direction of his own chambers but in the direction of where the jury usually comes from when had he enter the court. Huh . We have no idea what happened for most of the day today at the Paul Manafort trial. We know that the prosecutors did file another motion asking the
manafort judge to correct something to the jury that the prosecutors say he messed up. You might remember this happened earlier this week, as well. Prosecutors filed a motion earlier this week informing the judge he had improperly scolded the prosecutors in front of the jury for something the prosecutors say they didnt even do wrong. They asked him to tell the jury that he had been in the wrong. The prosecutors hadnt done anything wrong and he should correct that for the jury. The judge acquiesced to that request and did ta earlier this week. Late last night prosecutors asked the judge 0 clear up Something Else with the jury. During trial proceedings yesterday, the judge has interjected while prosecutors were going through a line of questioning with one witness from a bank. The judge interjeked to tell prosecutors they were barking up the wrong tree and shouldnt be trying to problem something with the witness that wasnt going to be legally relevant to the charges manafort was facing. As a matter of law, it looks like prosecutors were right and judge was wrong. And so prosecutors asked Account Jung Late Last Night to clear up that point with the jury, as well. Now, we have no idea if the judge did or did not clear that up with the jury as prosecutors requested. If it did happen it, wasnt in the courtroom in front of all the spectators and reporters there today who had as little idea what was going on as any of the rest of us. So an unexpected turn on what we thought would be the last day of the case against manafort. What are we supposed to make of this . Prosecutors ultimately at the end of the afternoon, they finally did, they brought the jury back in and finally did start bringing in witnesses we had expected today about this allegation that Paul Manafort had offered a Trump Administration job to a bank ceo who had arranged for manafort to get millions of dollars in loans between the election and the inauguration. We had previously seen evidence in the trial and extensive public reporting that this guy from the bank thought he was going to end up being secretary
of the army for his troubs. Today an employee of the bank testified that the banks ceo in fact told him he was maybe going to get to be secretary of the treasury or secretary of housing and urban development. And thats apparently those apparently were dangled in addition to whatever else was damaged to a potential job running the army. That interesting tale about those big loans to Paul Manafort between election and inauguration and whether or not there was some quid pro quo offer associated with those loans for the bank ceo thought he was going to get something from the Trump Administration in exchange for green lighting those loans we thought that would be the finale today. That tale has started to be told but now theres still more of it to tell because they didnt start till late in the afternoon. Honestly, The Big Question now, the big mystery now is what happened during those hours long delays . What happened in all those
sealed discussions that took place four hours out of the jurys ear shot, out of reporters ear shot all day long . We know its delayed the end of the case. There will now be more witnesses for the prosecution on monday. Closing arguments will take place only as early as tuesday if the defense doesnt call any of its own witnesses which they might not. Given the strange turn, senior this the kind of thing that is a normal occurrence or at least not too strange an occurrence in a try thats been running as fast as this one in this kind of court where things seem to be run on such a tight schedule . Whatever went off the rails today, can we tell if it has something to do with the jury or that prosecutors keep trying to correct the judge for him in their words screwing stuff up . And when are we going to find out . This was the note today. We tried to get the formal record of what happened in the courtroom today the transcript
is under seal and will not be available to the public. Some day that may change. Till that happens, we have to ask people who were there what they saw. Joining us now is josh gerstein, Senior Reporter at politico. Thank you very much for being here. Hey, good to be back with you. Was it frustrating or fascinating or both when things sort of took off out of ear shot and in some cases out of ith in the courtroom today . Well, it was surprising the way things kind of screeched to a halt as you were talking about earlier, we had been moving at a breakneck case with the judge pressuring prosecutors to keep it short, keep it short and cut all their witnesses down sometimes spending maybe half as much time as they had intended. To ten then see the judge consume about five hours today with proceedings that were either being held at sidebar or in secret in the judges chambers was a pretty startling development. I would say it was interesting but at the same time,
frustrating because we couldnt get really a clear idea of why the trial had beak been put into some kind of suspended animation. Josh, one thing that happened outside of the direct live proceedings of the trial was this is request from prosecutors for a second time that they wanted the judge to correct something that they thought he got wrong before the jury. We saw the judge in fact a coup days ago did correct himself. He beak agreed with what prosecutors had asserted that the judge had blamed prosecutors for doing something wrong that they didnt get wrong. They asked him again after yesterdays proceedings to correct another matter which is more a matter of law in front of the jury. And we know that is something there was a motion about from the prosecution. It wasnt thing stherp fighting orally and in person. Is there a way to know if that might have been part of why things went so differently today, why the jury wasnt called in till so late, why the
first thing that happened today was Bench Conferences where the lawyers were talking out of ear shot of everybody else in the room . That could be part of it. Its highly unlikely that motion accounts for all the delay we saw. There was enough other weird action going on as you mentioned earlier with the judge moving back and forth to the jurys chamber at the side of the courtroom. That i dont think the issue of what the judge said wrong yesterday while significant, he basically said that attempted bank fraud isnt very important and isnt maybe something the prosecution should be trifling with which i think no one would expect that attempted bank robbery for example, wouldnt be prosecuted as a crime. Its hard to see why attempted bank fraud would be dismissed. That was the issue the prosecution filed that motion about overnight. It is surprising and unusual i think that there was no public ruling on that motion. And there was Nos Instruction to the jury one way or another. Maybe the judge denied it. If he did, he didnt give us any explanation on the record. There was some speculation this morning that maybe the defense or the prosecution was seeking some kind of mistrial on that count. It might be difficult for the judge maybe to fix his mistake without suggesting to jurors he was saying that manafort was guilty on that charge and there could have been an argument of that sort. I guess well find out when we find out with all these things. Josh gerstein, Senior Reporter at politico. Com, i know its been intense coverage all week on this. Thanks for being our eyes and ears there and thanks for being with us tonight. Joining us is chuck rosenburg, former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of virginia and former Senior Justice Department and fbi official. Thank you for being with us tonight. I appreciate you being with us on friday night. My pleasure, rachel. As an experienced prosecutor and somebody who is very, very experienced in the Eastern District of Var Including being the u. S. Attorney there, a lot of us who are nonlawyer and who
are not frequent observers of federal trials were totally flummoxed by this turn of events today. Whats happening . What does this mean . How weird is this . Is the thing going off the rails . Everybody was trying to read the manafort Body Language to suggest if this meant the trial was blowing up . As somebody who has been there, how weird was today . Have you seen stuff like this happen before . Especially right towards the end of a trial . Ive seen things like this happen before. I dont think its going off the rails or blowing up. Maybe i can explain. Sometimes a judge has to take a few hours, two, three, four hours to straighten out an issue. Its not frequent but its frequent enough that we can make an educated guess. It usually involves a juror issue. It may be something as benign as a juror is ill or has an emergency at home. That doesnt seem to be what happened here. More likely, and ive seen this happen in my own trials, once or
twice over many years, a juror accidentally sees something or hears something, maybe overhears a conversation in a cafeteria or a bathroom or a hallway. Maybe Saw Something at home at night after court recessed for the day, overheard a conversation. And more likely than not and again educated guess reports that to the judge. And so why does it take hours to straighten this out . Then the judge has to essentially call a timeout and question the jury and the juror. What did you see, what did you hear . Did you talk to anyone else . Did what you saw what you heard, did that sort of change your opinion of this trial . Can you put it aside . So the judge probably has to make some sort of inquiry, some sort of factual finding. Thats likely what happened here. Because when you see this thing sort of shut down for a few hours, it usually falls along these lines, rachel. In terms of when this is going to become clear to us, i showed the note we got from the Court Reporter today in terms of this being a sealed transcript. Is this the sort of thing we should expect to eventually become public or whatever happened today, these discussions will those remain sealed indefinitely . I imagine it will eventually become public. Theres the courts really want to make all their proceedings public unless theres some compelling reason not to. For instance, grand jury materials are always sealed. But this is an open public trial and i imagine some day, perhaps soon, weigh know precisely what happened. But again, my guess is that its a juror issue, one where the judge had to inquire and had to satisfy himself this juror whatever he or she saw or heard can put that aside and consider the case you know, fairly and even handedly. Chuck, lease Something Else that happened with the Mueller Investigation today that i want to ask you about as a matter of law if youve seen something
like this. Can you stick around for a minute. You bet. Hes back with us right after this. Stay with us. Uhp. I didnt believe it. Again. Ooh, baby, do you know what thats worth . I want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ooh im not hearing the confidence. Okay, hold the name your price tool. Power of options based on your budget and well make heaven a place on earth yeah oh, my angels ooh, heaven is a place on earth [ sobs quietly ]
three Innovative Technologies for our ultimate in vision, clarity, and protection. Together in a single lens. Essilor ultimate lens package. Purchase the Essilor Ultimate Lens Package and get a second pair of qualifying lenses free. Essilor. Better sight. Better life. Your Digestive System has billions of bacteria but life can throw them off balance. Realign yourself with align probiotic. And try new align gummies with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. By a river. King tides if you live by the beach. One flood tide with the spring snow melt, susan i got a whole new Hot Water Heater came up down account river. Stuff just appears. They wash up whole new things you never knew you had to worry about. For example at this time in life, as an american citizen, you never before had to know the name and drewmier. Andrew miller is an american man who apparently works now as a House Painter in the suburbs of st. Louis, missouri. In 2016 around the time of the Republican National convention, and drew miller worked for a long time friend and aide to donald trump. He worked for a man named roger stone. Its a little fuzzy exactly what Andrew Miller did for stone but whatever it was its enough that special Counsel Robert Mueller told Andrew Miller that he needed to testify before a grand jury. On may 18th, Andrew Miller was told he should appear voluntarily before the grand jury and he should turn over
documents. When may 18th rolled around, Andrew Miller did not show up. So then the Special Counsel made it mandatory. They subpoenaed Andrew Miller to appear on june 8th. June 8th rolled around, Andrew Miller did not show up. Then a federal judge ordered Andrew Miller to comply ruled that in fact, he really did have to appear before the grand jury on june 29th. June 29th rolled around and this time Andrew Miller did not show up but he did file a formal motion to quash the subpoena to get rid of the subpoena on grounds the Mueller Investigation, the whole Special Counsel rig ma roll is unconstitutional. On august 2nd, that argument was shot down by a federal judge. She didnt just say no to his argument against the Special Counsel. She dismantled it in a 93page ruling to Andrew Millers allegation that the Special CounselRobert Miller wields too much power with too little accountability, judge barrel
howard shot back the scope of the Special Counsels power falls well within the boundaries of the constitution as the Special Counsel is supervised by an official who is himself accountable to the elected president. And that ruling meant that Andrew Miller had no more wiggle room. Did he have to testify before the Special Counsels grand jury. Today. And again, he didnt show up. So today judge Barrel Howard held him in Contempt Of Court for refusing to show up, for refusing to testify before the Robert Mueller grand jury. Im no lawyer but to me this seems like a kamikaze mission. Why do this . What is the strategy and where does this end . Did it just end . Does this guy potentially end up going to jail now . Joining us again is chuck rosenburg, forrer u. S. Attorney in the Eastern District of virginia, chuck, thank you for sticking around to help me with this. My pleasure. I understand Contempt Of Court in a control questional
sense meaning youve been told to do something by the court and youre not doing it. In this case, the Court Holding mr. Mueller, ruling he is in contempt for defying the subpoena, whats the consequence of this . Does this mean mr. Miller is going to go to jail. Conceivably. Im going to get a little nerdy on you. Yea. Theres two types of contempt. Theres civil contempt in which case the judge, judge howell simply wants miller to comply and as soon as he cop applies, as soon as he testifies, as soon as he follows her order, the content is lifted. Theres also criminal contempt. Thats designed to punish, not to enforce compliance. It seems to me she head him in Civil Contempt Meaning testify and youre free to go. All you need to do is comply with my order and were square. He has an easy out. If he doesnt comply, she can continue to hold him in contempt till he does which means conceivably, putting him in jail
or fining him or finding Something Else to try and coerce his compliance. Does a we cant see the ruling in this case. We believe at least as far as we can tell the ruling is sealed. We cant check. If shes now holding him in civil contempt and he continues to defy the courts order and refuse to testify, would, when you say she would then have the option to increase the leverage on Him Including Jail would ha mean she would be converting this from civil into criminal . She could ask the u. S. Attorneys office to file criminal charges. Could appoint a special prosecutor. My guess is it will likely remain civil contempt. As long as this grand jury is sitting and grand juries sit fur a term of anywhere from 12 to 18 months, cospend all that amount of time in jail and by the way, the Special Counsel bob muellers deem subpoena him again after that first grand jury expires. And if he chooses to disobey
again, he could be held in contempt again. And so look, its really on him. Its really on miller to simply comply. When you get subpoenaed you have two lawful options. You can plead the Fifth Amendment if you have a legitimate Fifth Amendment privilege if a truthful answer would incriminate you or you can go into the grand jury and answer the questions truthfully. He didnt choose the law of path. He chose the content path. Chuck rosenburg, forrer u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of virginia, former senior fbi official. Thank you. Much appreciated. You have to wonder why this particular guy is fighting this far. It may be a matter of principle. It may it be desperation. If chucks right, were going to find out when he ultimately gets in here. Much more to come. Stay with us. Paying too much for insurance you dont even understand . Or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. If youd rather be home ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. Pay no more than 5 per dose with copay card. Leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. Today, lifechanging technology from abbott is helping hunt them down at their source. Because the faster we can identify new viruses, the faster we can get to stopping them. The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. Pg e wants you to plan ahead by Mapping Out Escape Routes and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. For more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge. Com safety. One thing that has been remarkable and sort of weird and chilling to learn in reading all the Special Counsel indictments, is the specificity with Which Mueller Team has been able to lay out in great detail all the way in which Russian MilitaryIntelligence Officers worked to mess with the u. S. Prejudicial election in 2016, all the Different Things they did right down to them duping unsuspecting u. S. Citizens people here in the u. S. Getting them to make things happen here on u. S. Soil but secretly ob russias baffle. Its been creepy to learn they were able to influence americans
all across this country. But the place where russia went all in on stuff like that was the great state of florida. They organized and appropriated Florida Goes Trump rallies held in nearly 20 cities across the state of florida. Made oneonone contact with local Florida Activists for inperson on the ground help. They hired somebody to impersonate Hillary Clinton at a florida rally. For whatever reason, florida was a big target for russias influence campaign and for whatever reason, they were kind of a soft target. Russians were able to find people who they could dupe into participating in their operation. But theres another specific way they went after florida we dont yet understand the consequences of. We dont understand the danger of it but its now back in the news for right now. The details of it turned up a few weeks ago in the last big indictment from the Special Counsels office. That indictment against a bunch of Russian MilitaryIntelligence Officers from the gru. In that indict, according to that indictment, the month before the 2016 election, so october 2016, gru officers involved in the russian attack started checking out the web sighs of various counties in georgia and iowa and florida. They just started visiting those websites. The indictment says it was part of the gru targeting state and County Offices responsible for administering the 2016 uz elections. Then theres this is chilling paragraph in the indictment. By november 2016, but still before the election, so right the election was november 8th. This means this happened in the first seven days of november. Literally the final week before the election, these gru agents according to indictment sent over 100 spearfishing emails to organizations and personnel involved in administering elections in numerous florida counties. The spearfishing emails contained malware that the conspirators embedded in their
emails. The last week of the election . So this isnt like this is a very spec thing. This Isnt Like Hijacking American political causes to make them more extreme. This isnt organizing on facebook. This isnt even what they did to target individual voters on line with content and propaganda that was supposed to make people hate Hillary Clinton or hate muslims or make you think Bernie Sanders and donald trump were somehow the same thing. This was spec. This was the last seven days before the election. First week of november. A huge targeted blitz by Russian Military intelligence Blasting Hacking Tools Malware at the individual people who were administering elections in individual florida counties. What did they think they could do in the final week of the election . This wasnt a planning expedition to see how vulnerable those websites were. This was voting time. This was go time. And russia at that moment was trying to gain access to those
crucial systems in charge of handling elections in just a matter of days. Why that blitz . How successful were they . What are the consequences . That was 2016. That was all spelled out in the last mueller indictment. We dont know whatever happened with that, what that was for, that specific part of the attacking what it did. Now, comes a new warning. That there isnt just some generic threat out there related to the elections this fall all over the country. Now comes a new spec warning that theres specifically a russian hacking operation that is live and under way right now inside low florida Election Systems. We dont know if this is the payoff from what they did so late in the game in 2016. They inserted malware there that allowed them to maintain access to is the systems for the next election. Maybe this is a whoa new effort but apparently its live. And under way now. And the way we have learned
about it this week is super weird and controversial and thats next. A hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be rushed into booking one. Thats why we created expedias addon advantage. Now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. Addon advantage. Discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. Only when you book with expedia. Senator nelson, can you elaborate what you told my colleague yesterday about russians being in florida election records . Do you mean right now or were you referring to 2016. Right now. What do you mean by theyre in the election records . Just exactly what i said. They have already penetrated certain counties in the state. And they now have free rein to move about. They now have free rein to move about. Florida senator bill nelson this week announcing theres something going on in his States Election system in the keep the administered is Election Systems in his state right now. Not 2016 but now. Hackers have ben traited certain florida counties and now have free rein to move about. Hes running for reelection this year. His opponent is the states
republican governor rick scott. The Administration Responded to this warning from nelson this week by insisting they had no idea what he was talking about beak saying as far as we know everythings fine. That sounds crazy. Rick scott himself gave a speech today in which he accused Senator Nelson of making things up. But senator bill nelson is standing by his statement and hes offering some important detail. Also, notably, the states other senator, republican member of the Senate Intelligence committee marco rubio is not disputing Senator Nelsons account. Today he released a statement taking no issue with any sons remarks and declaring his States Elections systems have been and will remain a potentially attractive target for attacks by foreign actors. The Tampa Bay Times also reports bill nelsons account was partly corroborated by two county officials who said they heard a similar warning at a private meeting with rubio earlier this year in may. Senator nelson says both he and senator rubio warned florida
Election Officials about their current russian intrusion in a letter last month. He says he sent that letter to local florida Election Officials specifically at the request of the republican chairman and the democratic Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee. We were requested by the chairman and Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee to let the supervisors of election in florida know that the russians are in their records. This is no fooling time. And thats why two senators bipartisan, reached out to the election apparatus of florida to let them know that the russians are in the records and all they have to do, if those election records are not protected, is to go in and start eliminating registered voters and you can imagine the chaos that would occur on election day. Bill nel on is not backing down from his claims that russians have penetrated florida Election Systems now. Theyre in there now for this election cycle. His warnings come on the heels of the last indictment from the Special Counsels office which charge that Russian Military intelligence for some reason bombarded county level Election Officials in florida in the final seven days before the president ial election in 2016. The indictment describing a huge late attack mounted against local systems in florida an attack that was designed to install russian mall aware inside florida Election Systems. Well, neither the chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee are denying what Senator Nelson says happened here. Even as the republican governor of the state who is running against him is treating this like a joke or even some kind of gaffe by Senator Nelson. But if what Senator Nelson is wampbing about is true, if this is happening, what do we do about the fact that the State Government really doesnt seem to care if this kind of attack
is real and its under way right now . And it is Russian Military intelligence doing it again, are we really just supposed to count on random local officials to figure out if and how they want to try to defend against it . I mean, i get that localities run Election Systems but if those Election Systems are actually hit with an international targeted attack by a hostile nation state, isnt there Somebody Else who should come in and help with that . Literally were just having ran come senators warn each other and hope someone believes them and figures out a homegrown defense . Thats the plan really . Hold that thought. Thats next. Introducing more sizes for better comfort. New depend fitflex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. In 2014, the u. S. Attorney in the Western District of pennsylvania David Hickton announced what was at that time the first ever criminal indictment against foreign state actors for hacking. When he brought criminal charges against five members of the Chinese Military for economic Cyber Espionage against the united states. That made David Hickton a pioneer in the field of defending the country against foreign Cyber Attacks in part by using the criminal justice system. Join us is David Hickton, the founder and director at the university of pug. Thanks very much for joining us. Nice to have you here. Thank you, rachel. We have an unusual situation in florida that is unfolding over last few days. The senator from florida bill nelson who is facing reelection this year and being challenged for his seat by the serving
republican governor of the state Senator Nelson says that there is a cyber attack under way that is targeting florida local Election Systems and in his words, the russians are in there now and have free rein to move about at will. The state in part through governor scott, appears to be dismissing this and calling him all but crazy for bringing this up. From a Law EnforcementCyber Security perspective, whats your overall reaction to that in. My reaction is that on the one hand, it points to the natural defensive reaction we get from State Officials which is understandable we need to account for it. Nobody likes to admit theyve been hacked. But the fact is that we know that in 2016, florida was one of the seven states identified by dhs with where the russians were not only circling but in their system. I agree with the spirit of what Senator Nelson has said today. The other thing i think it
points to is i made the point on your show a couple weeks ago we shouldnt look at hacking as a single event. Its really a series of events. And we shouldnt look at elections as a thing. Elections are many things. Its an architecture. We represent the worlds greatest democracy and we register people to vote. We educate voters on the issues through the media and other resources and the candidates. And then we have election day and then we tally the votes and in some places we do audits. Its really a broader concept so this campaign over here is really attacking an Election System over here, and the thing is that theres just multiple onramps for our Nation State Adversaries its been demonstrated time and time again going all the way back to 2008. I believe its type to get our heads out of the sand about this. We need to really address it. And i think that men and women
of good will who are patriotic could come together and solve this. David hickton, founder and corrector of the institute for Cyber Law Policy at the university of pittsburgh. Id like to ask you to come back and talk to us about this next week. This is becoming a political fight in florida and a National Security fight in terms of defending these systems. I hope youll come back and join us again. Happy to. Well be right back. Stay with us. Eico could help them save money on Car Insurance . Yea,that and homeowners, renters, motorcycle and boat insurance. Huh. Thats nice. What happens when you catch a fish . Gecko whoa. Geico. More than just Car Insurance. See how much you could save at geico. Com. Im ok
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