Russian firm wants sensitive US government info in Mueller court fight
4 replies, posted
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russian-firm-disclose-sensitive-us-government-info-court/story?id=59444605
A Russian consulting firm indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller plans to ask a U.S. court to allow it to share information that the U.S. government considers "sensitive.”
In a joint scheduling motion filed on Tuesday, the firm, Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, said it plans to argue that the information should be shared with Concord officers or
employees, and that the judge's decision on the matter will "significantly affect the defense position to how it can proceed."
The filing did not specify what information Concord hoped to disclose. Concord and the special counsel's office agreed to file motions and counter-motions on the disclosure question
through February, the filing said.
Concord – which according to the Department of Justice is owned by a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin named Yevgeniy Prigozhin – is among the three Russian
business entities and 13 Russian nationals indicted in February for their alleged role in a Russian troll factory's effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The handling of sensitive U.S. government information has long been a sticking point in the case. In October, ABC News reported that legal and national security experts were
concerned the Russian government may be attempting to use the normal discovery process, in which the accused is given relevant information in order to mount their defense, to
gather intelligence about Mueller's investigation and reveal other U.S. secrets – a twist on an old espionage and legal tactic known as graymail.
In a court filing in June, prosecutors argued that the court should impose restrictions on the handling of sensitive discovery information because of the "risk of exposing this material
to the Russian government."
After some back and forth, the special counsel's office and the defense eventually agreed to use special measures first developed decades ago to deal with cases involving classified
information, including a "firewall counsel" who would help decide what information can be shared with whom.
No, from what I'm reading they want the FBI to hand over documents to them (and by extension Russia) as a part of the legal discovery process. Basically they want the court to help them spy on the investigation.
So as a little interesting story (that I have to be very vague about), the company I work for does things. We have been working on a deal with the FBI. This deal meant we ultimately might be interacting with FBI documents in some way. But the FBI wanted us to go through the FCL process which basically means our entire facilities would have to be checked and personnel, especially upper management, cleared by the FBI to make sure we are secure and not open to compromise or external influence. Well there was an issue in that despite the company being U.S. based, and everything involved being based here in the states, someone in upper management is a west-European national and therefore could be subject to foreign influence. So that deal died.
Why tell this story? Well this is an indicted company, no FCL approval, owned by a close friend of the leader of the U.S.'s largest geopolitical foe. And they want access to FBI documents. Yeah no go fuck yourself Concord.
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