Treason

A top Russian FSB agent has been arrested and charged with treason, accused of being a US asset. He was high in the chain of command of those accused of running the hacking operation against the US. Is there anything odd about this happening just after Trump and his top aides, some with deep Russian links, got the classified briefing on the details of how the Russian hacking operation was revealed?

Josh Marshall:

From the Moscow Times ...

A top cybersecurity specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday reportedly on suspicion of leaking information to the U.S. intelligence community — a bombshell accusation that, if true, would mean Washington had a spy in the heart of Russia’s national defense infrastructure.

Here's the additional detail ...

According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” which the American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect identified last September as “an information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.

But this immediately poses the question: if Mikhailov was a US asset, how was he compromised? Did the information put out by US intelligence somehow lead to his exposure? Without putting too fine a point on it, a number of close advisors to President Trump are being scrutinized for ties to Russia. Some of them participated in the intelligence briefings the President receives.

Do we have a very big problem?

If Trump or his guys compromised this agent, that's treason.

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