18 comments

  • zmmmmm 52 minutes ago
    You have to think the current administration is completely and totally owned by foreign interests at this point.

    The question is, what do you do as the new administration coming in? Presumably you assume every system and every person is compromised all the way down, like a compromised server - clean wipe and re-install.

    One would assume that, like any good hacker, the current set would be heavily focused on ensuring they can survive a reboot / wipe. The question is, what would they be doing to achieve that?

    • Danox 37 minutes ago
      Prosecute and show no mercy, the current Iran war probably will still be going on when the new administration comes in. The only hope for Mr. Kushner and some of the other people is a rapid peace treaty before the end of this mixed-up administration even that probably will not help.
      • felixgallo 7 minutes ago
        Literally everyone from ICE to Kushner will be pardoned.
      • swingboy 6 minutes ago
        Trump is just going to pardon everyone around him like Biden did. Not saying anyone Biden pardoned did wrong, just that it's a thing that can be done without having to name any "crimes" the pardons may be for.
        • wolfram74 3 minutes ago
          It is an open legal question if pardons from felonious presidents are valid.
    • grandpajoey 36 minutes ago
      Unless this administration is held responsible for their actions, I think it's safe to say that the incoming administration is compromised too. We had a bunch of hullabaloo from the Democrats about Russian influence and zero about Israeli influence (which is much more overt, severe and out in the open), so it sure looks like our entire government is a rooted server at this point.
    • duxup 12 minutes ago
      I don’t think they’re “owned” but they are for sale for given tasks … or straight shaking down folks.

      Not quite the same thing.

    • overtone1000 46 minutes ago
      Cash out, destroy evidence, and feign innocence and ignorance.
    • mitxela 36 minutes ago
      The new administration will also be paid by the same foreign interests.
    • esafak 39 minutes ago
      They've shifted the culture and normalized their actions. It was already heading in their direction before they came to power.
      • nalekberov 36 minutes ago
        I didn't know Elif Shafak was active on HN.
        • esafak 32 minutes ago
          She ain't, but I do get emails for her occasionally.
  • consumer451 1 hour ago
    I am pretty darn jaded these days, but I find myself staggered.

    edit after reply:

    > What was odd, the source said, was that the money in the account—hundreds of millions of dollars—had come from a bank in Azerbaijan.

    Ahh, now the arrest of the former chief of Germany's BND, related to what seemed like a random country "Azerbaijan" is making a bit more sense?

    • TFNA 1 hour ago
      Azerbaijan isn't a random country in corruption contexts. It is a petro-state and run by a single family for their own enrichment. It's pretty expected to come up occasionally in these kind of stories.
    • eddyfromtheblok 1 hour ago
      the corruption or that other countries are able to surface the corruption faster than we can?
      • georgemcbay 1 hour ago
        > or that other countries are able to surface the corruption faster than we can?

        A lot of the corruption just happens right out in the open here these days, doesn't even need to be surfaced.

    • tiahura 1 hour ago
      I wouldn't read a connection between the two other than a lot of corruption flows through Azerbaijan.
      • blipvert 1 hour ago
        I think that you’ll find that it’s pronounced “Aber-baijan”.
  • cf100clunk 1 hour ago
    • hmartin 1 hour ago
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  • Havoc 53 minutes ago
    Why bother with hacks when it's an open secret that the US gov is compromised?
    • mitxela 27 minutes ago
      A lot of people still don't believe it despite increasing levels of proof. The proof is fighting against the world's most powerful media empires, which also prevent access to the proof.
    • slowin 28 minutes ago
      Honestly, this story reeks of being a limited hangout:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout

      • fn-mote 7 minutes ago
        You can wait for the book and find out how limited it is. I’m not passing judgement before then.

        Actually, I’m passing judgement right now, but not on this being some kind of partial expose.

  • cdrnsf 38 minutes ago
    Everything lately makes me want to re-watch Peter Finch's monologue from Network.
  • toomim 35 minutes ago
  • Barrin92 58 minutes ago
    I also feel people are missing the forest for the trees in that discussion in that Jared Kushner is a private citizen and the son in law of the president who somehow is negotiating with foreign heads of states despite having no mandate from the American people to do so. Forget a hacked phone, why is a nepo baby running around negotiating on behalf of a country without holding any office
    • surfingdino 49 minutes ago
      Because the most powerful nation on Earth turned out to be powerless against a carefully planned and executed Dismantling of Democracy attack.
      • drekipus 31 minutes ago
        The forefathers gave the citizens the right to arms for a reason.

        "The prophecies foretold!"

        (Aside, I just finished reading the mistborn trilogy)

  • keeda 16 minutes ago
    Huh, we know all countries try to access every other countries' secrets, even their allies'... but the way they described the Dutch hacking into a phone belonging to a high-level US diplomat / government employee seemed a bit too casual, no?

    Maybe they're just locking in to the "We are currently clean on OPSEC" vibe ¯\(ツ)/¯

  • tyrabound 1 hour ago
    Not to make this political, but if the democrats gain control they better at least actually try to prosecute these criminals and not just make it yet another circle jerk asking for donations and never actually accomplishing anything. At some point the ruling class is going to mess around and everyone’s head ends up on a pile regardless. This is the time to demonstrate your head doesn’t deserve on the pile too. Time is running out. Just saying. Things happen fast when they finally cross that threshold that always comes as a surprise.
    • ThrowawayTestr 1 hour ago
      Spoiler: They won't.
      • markdown 49 minutes ago
        They'll put another limp dick like Merrick Garland in charge
        • lokar 22 minutes ago
          Jack Smith for AG
          • felixgallo 4 minutes ago
            Jack Smith, Barack Obama, and four teenagers from tiktok for supreme court additions.
    • losvedir 1 hour ago
      Echoes of "Lock her up! Lock her up!"
      • cthalupa 24 minutes ago
        On one hand, we have an email server where most of the classified information on it was classified for her own protection - like her location.

        Meanwhile Trump and plenty of others have also practiced extremely poor email hygiene using non-official emails for all sorts of stuff. You don't hear about that from the Left because, well, there's all sorts of far more concerning shit happening.

        Then, on the other hand, there's staggeringly large and previously unprecedented levels of corruption with this administration. We've never seen anything remotely like it, unless your argument is just that the Democrats are just vastly more competent at hiding it, despite constantly having all sorts of shit leak and just generally being totally incompetent at managing the party itself.

        But if you don't understand the difference between the Hillary email situation and the staggering amount of blatantly illegal and massively corrupt things coming out of the Trump administration basically every single day, I don't know that there's any level of proof or any argument that could be made to change your mind.

      • asdfman123 36 minutes ago
        Yes, the MO of the Trump administration is to blame the other side of what they're actually doing.

        Loudly making unfounded or exaggerated claims of corruption is a pretty effective tool for muddying the waters and making it less clear where the smoke is coming from.

      • heylook 43 minutes ago
        Are you:

        A) a troll

        B) truly unable to tell the difference

  • Calavar 1 hour ago
    So Kushner's phone was hacked around the same time as Hunter Biden's laptop? Why has the latter captured the media so much more then the former?
    • consumer451 1 hour ago
      This question and the potential answers are honestly the most interesting thing in this thread, so far.
    • jazzyjackson 1 hour ago
      Because the latter included clips of the presidents son smoking crack and hanging out with prostitutes? lol
      • estearum 58 minutes ago
        The President’s son being a private citizen versus the President’s son in law being some pseudo-secretary of state?
    • WillPostForFood 1 hour ago
      Media had access to the laptop, and we only have second hand claims about the phone.
      • frmersdog 37 minutes ago
        Boy, that sounds like a job for an investigative reporter with the public interest in mind.
    • pxmpxm 1 hour ago
      Is there an alternate reality where the dem aligned mass media didn't completely bury the ridiculously salacious laptop story (drugs, money for access aaaand onlyfans level nudity!!) to steer the election?

      Because i distinctly recall the head of what to that point I though was a credible journalistic organization saying she didnt want to "waste people's time" with that.

      • jetpks 1 hour ago
        The alternate reality is the one where "dem aligned mass media _did_ completely bury" -- because it's all I heard about for months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months, and months.
        • pxmpxm 37 minutes ago
          You mean *after* the election, right? At which point it mattered f_all, other than the sheer entertainment value.
      • cthalupa 19 minutes ago
        Money for access is a stretch, at least if you mean for Joe. Some speakerphone conversations that included no business, and zero evidence of Joe ever doing anything untoward that benefited any of Hunter's associates.

        Archer was quite explicit in his testimony that if anything, Hunter was basically scamming them with the illusion of access.

        Which, well, is bad, but if anything, the situation reflects that Joe never let his son influence him to do anything corrupt, which turns it entirely into a bunch of TMZ level drama about Hunter's drug and prostitution habits.

        And I still heard about the laptop plenty before the election. If that is a buried story, then plenty of widely published and discussed stories would be buried by your definition.

        The amount of attention it has received has always been silly.

    • jonas21 1 hour ago
      Biden's laptop was in the possession of a computer shop in the US, and the owner leaked its contents to the media.

      Kushner's phone data was in the possession of Dutch intelligence who didn't want the public to know they had it -- and as far as I know, this was not public knowledge until today.

      • estearum 56 minutes ago
        Biden’s laptop was in the possession of “someone” who brought it to a blind computer repair person (seriously!), who then got in touch with Rudy Giuliani, who then leaked the contents to the media… and so we can’t really know who actually gained possession of it. The repair man was blind lol.
    • rootsudo 1 hour ago
      crowd control on 4chan?
    • jimt1234 1 hour ago
    • pupppet 1 hour ago
      I think it's becoming clear that although the media just happily accepts the left-wing bias accusations, they are by no means left-wing. They shouted every random Biden mistake from the rooftops while this administration mostly gets a free pass.
    • bayarearefugee 1 hour ago
      > Why has the latter captured the media so much more then the former?

      Kushner is a boring nerd and Biden is a Chad with a huge dong.

  • enjoyyourlife 1 hour ago
    I'm more interested to see if it revealed he is using it on Saturdays
  • ck2 2 hours ago
    it's going to take decades to unravel all the corruption by this administration

    it is staggering

    and they are destroying records in violation of law

    because "pardons for everyone" on the way out

    • dylan604 1 hour ago
      why would you need to destroy anything if there's pardons involved. Even if they have the proof you committed wrongdoing, the pardon means you suffer no consequences.
      • throw0101a 1 hour ago
        > why would you need to destroy anything if there's pardons involved.

        To prosecute people guilty of state-level violations (which are not covered by Presidential federal-level pardons). To find 'collaborators' (and perhaps prosecute them, as it may difficult to pardon 'everyone'). To know what happened to perhaps help prevent it happening again in the future.

        • dylan604 57 minutes ago
          Well, that's why you commit your crimes in DC!
      • neaden 1 hour ago
        They still probably are violating plenty of state and local laws that the pardon won't do anything about.
        • DASD 1 hour ago
          That and there is an idea that the strength of pardons will be tested by the House Oversight Committee(assuming take back by Democrats).
          • estearum 54 minutes ago
            IMO the pardon power was an absolute mistake and I’m totally fine with us just burning this bridge for good.
        • dylan604 50 minutes ago
          what happens if you are convicted in federal court before receiving the pardon. does double jeopardy come into play?
    • lopsotronic 1 hour ago
      "Corruption" isn't quite the right scale to use for this. Far deeper, more systemic. This is the disassembly of a state.

      Much more equivalent to phenomenon surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union: liquidation of an entire state's infrastructure via foreign exchange controlled exclusively by the security state . . with plenty of братва duocracy of course.

      We've already seen equivalents, even before the 2008 Econopalypse, but activities like those of the Trump-affiliated circle is the terminal end: where USD-denominated assets are exchanged for pure state power. It's just that this is a particularly pure form of it.

      There will be no unravelling of this, not until the system of USD seigniorage itself unravels.

      • maypeacepreva1l 50 minutes ago
        This is the right answer to this. This is the beginning of dismantling of USD based system, US might suffer because of that but other countries now have no choice at all but to decouple the system relying in USD.
        • lopsotronic 12 minutes ago
          Seen through this lens the AI bubble make more sense - even if not very much. I suspect it is at least partially a ploy to exchange USD-denominated securities for control of land, of electrical power, of clean water - as fast as the markets can handle.

          Or, in this specific case under discussion, exchanging dollars for raw slices of the state's monopoly of force.

          Unfortunately, like the RU oligarchs before them, they will find all these trinkets hold value rather poorly when the state apparatus entirely disintegrates.

          And those that flee with their capital to other more stable powers will find themselves . . probably less than pleased with the, ah, the level of service that Jiang has in his pleasure bucket. But we're ALL in for it, in a Han-dominant globe. You thought Southerners were racist? Oh, oh goodness . .

          Thank the American Rural Voter. This is what they wanted, I am going to watch them eat the whole damn cake.

      • pimlottc 1 hour ago
        Kleptocracy
    • red_candle_wax 1 hour ago
      > and they are destroying records in violation of law

      Nothing new and there will be no justice. Look up the guy in charge of MKUltra. He destroyed evidence and got a nice retirement.

    • jldugger 1 hour ago
      Seems like the best case scenario is prosecution under state laws, which the presidential pardon cannot stop.
      • ceejayoz 1 hour ago
        The best case scenario is probably drone strikes as "official acts" under Presidential immunity.
    • jimt1234 1 hour ago
      My understanding is that they don't need to destroy records related to Kushner because he's not a government employee, his records aren't required to be retained. And that is, no doubt, by design.
      • dmix 1 hour ago
        This article is about a phone hacking in 2017 when he was still a federal employee. Russia hacked his iPhone X around then.
  • jongjong 1 hour ago
    This kind of stuff gives an insight into how horrible centralized governance is. All these manipulations happening behind the scenes constantly which people are affected by but can't make sense of. It's not really surprising though, it's just part of the system. The system is designed in a way to attract certain people and make them behave a certain way. Power should be much more decentralized so that this doesn't happen.
    • estearum 59 minutes ago
      The reason that power centralizes is that decentralized powers tend to get outcompeted (in the short run) by centralized powers.
      • jongjong 35 minutes ago
        Then there should be a centralized power whose only power is to enforce the decentralization of power. Basically people should get paid if they can legally prove that someone has too much power in a trial. There should be a felony 'Overaccumulation of power' which may carry a temporary/conditional jail sentence and a special court made up of a large random jury who vote on each case.

        With enough signatures, anyone can be brought to trial. The jury is asked to vote to determine if a person or entity is too powerful or too well known. Also, there should be a wealth limit so if wealth is above a certain high limit (like $100 million; set by a special panel), they are offered to either donate everything above the limit to a UBI fund or they go to a special jail until the amount falls below the limit (evaluated by a special, large, randomly-selected parole board).

        I think such system would out-compete centralized systems which do not have such limits as it would be more efficient economically.

  • partiallypro 1 hour ago
    I am very jaded about the current administration and also the previous...few...or several? That being said, similar to the Hunter Biden laptop situation, I think you do have to be careful. Sure they -could- have the device or it -could- have been hacked, but what is the proof that the hacked or on-device information wasn't planted among real items to make it appear legitimate? That was always the big if for me with the Hunter stuff, so I will extend the same skepticism here, knowing full well it could definitely be true in either case.
  • 666fifthav 15 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • red_candle_wax 1 hour ago
    Its just good business.
  • dead_hn_theory 38 minutes ago
    Hold on honey I want to read what HN has to say about Jared Kushner.