Category Archives: chicanery

“Lev Parnas Paid His Way Into Donald Trump’s Orbit”

January 20, 2020, 8:26 amcampaign finance, chicaneryRick Hasen

WSJ: After Donald Trump’s election, Lev Parnas saw a chance to cash in on his connections.The Florida businessman and Trump donor was courting investors for a real-estate project. He took one of them, Roman Nasirov, at the time the head… Continue reading

“FBI plans to notify states about local election breaches”

January 17, 2020, 7:16 amchicanery, election administration, voting technologyRick Hasen

AP reports.

“Democrats sound election security alarm after Russia’s Burisma hack”

January 15, 2020, 8:36 amchicaneryDan Tokaji

The Hill: Congressional Democrats are raising fresh concerns about 2020 election security following a report this week that Russian military officers hacked Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company at the center of President Trump’s impeachment.Several Democratic lawmakers are… Continue reading

“Digital Threats on 2020 Elections”

January 12, 2020, 7:20 amchicanery, political polarizationDan Tokaji

NPR interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan. An excerpt: MARTIN: So moving forward in 2020, as where we sit right now – obviously, it’s an election year in the United States. And I assume most Americans are very interested and concerned in… Continue reading

“‘Chaos Is the Point’: Russian Hackers and Trolls Grow Stealthier in 2020”

January 10, 2020, 9:25 amchicaneryDan Tokaji

Must-read report in today’s NYT: The National Security Agency and its British counterpart issued an unusual warning in October: The Russians were back and growing stealthier.Groups linked to Russia’s intelligence agencies, they noted, had recently been uncovered boring into… Continue reading

“U.S. Probes If Russia Is Targeting Biden in 2020 Election Meddling”

January 10, 2020, 9:20 amchicaneryDan Tokaji

Bloomberg Politics: ” U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are assessing whether Russia is trying to undermine Joe Biden in its ongoing disinformation efforts with the former vice president still the front-runner in the race to challenge President Donald… Continue reading

Breaking: “Facebook sticking with policies on politicians’ lies and voter targeting”

January 9, 2020, 4:20 amchicaneryDan Tokaji

From Politico: Facebook is standing by its policies that allow politicians to lie to voters, while targeting their ads at narrow subsets of the public — decisions with vast implications for the more than $1 billion in online campaign… Continue reading

House Hearing on Digital Manipulation and Deception

January 8, 2020, 10:55 amchicaneryDan Tokaji

The Hill on today’s hearing “Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age,” before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce: Facebook’s global policy chief faced tough questions before a House panel on Wednesday as lawmakers voiced… Continue reading

Galston on Deepfakes

January 8, 2020, 4:16 amchicanery, political polarizationDan Tokaji

From the Brookings report, “Is seeing still believing? The deepfake challenge to truth in politics,” with a nod to the Marx Brothers’ classic Duck Soup: If AI is reaching the point where it will be virtually impossible to detect… Continue reading

“Voters in town once run by polygamous sect probably broke the law when they cast ballots, prosecutor says, but charges are unlikely”

January 5, 2020, 12:54 pmchicanery, voter registrationJustin Levitt

The Salt Lake Tribune runs a story about potential improper registration in Colorado City (which, despite the name, is half of a community that straddles the Utah-Arizona boder). There are real problems of unlawful behavior in Colorado City. But… Continue reading

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January 3, 2020, 4:45 pmchicaneryJustin Levitt

The New York Times lede: A federal judge on Friday allowed a Rudy Giuliani associate indicted on campaign finance charges to turn over documents to Congress as part of the impeachment proceeding against President Donald Trump. U.S. District Court… Continue reading

“A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden illustrates a big problem in 2020”

January 3, 2020, 4:44 pmchicanery, Election MeltdownJustin Levitt

Rick’s been writing up a storm about dirty tricks like deepfakes in American elections, including in his new book. But the sort of deceptive selective editing at play in the video described here is much more accessible, and has … Continue reading

“Leaked Trump Camp Tape Reignites Concerns Over GOP ‘Ballot Security’ Plans”

January 3, 2020, 4:33 pmchicanery, political partiesJustin Levitt

Tierney Sneed at TPM highlights the audio Rick blogged before the holidays, about the lapse of the consent decree between the DNC and RNC governing “ballot security” efforts.