Immediately after the 2016 U.S. elections, rumors went rife that Donald Trump had correspondence with Russian authorities.
It was further claimed that they had a hand in manipulating the outcomes of the elections.
A bigger part of Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton was based on her classified leaked emails.
It is now becoming apparent that Trump’s aide, Joseph Schmitz, was the one working tirelessly in pursuit of the emails, with the help of the Russians.
Apparently, Schmitz pursued the emails as far as in the dark web.
The dark web has been known to be home ground for many illegal activities, but nobody expected political associates would go down that road at some point.
Now, looking at the dynamics of the dark web and the nature of classified emails, it makes perfect sense.
Material Collected from Dark Web
Through his client, Schmitz is said to have come across certain material from the dark web that he believed contained Clinton’s deleted emails.
Schmitz approached the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government agencies to ask them to review the material he believed to contain 30,000 emails from Clinton’s private server.
In a separate instance, another one of Trump’s aides, George Papadopoulos, is said to have had correspondence with Kremlin-connected individuals who claimed to have damaging information against Clinton.
The Russian agents are said to have contacted Trump directly, offering thousands of emails that were damaging to Clinton’s campaign.
A group of Russians would later visit Trump Tower and have a meeting with Trump Jr. and two other aides.
The agenda and deliberations of the meeting remain unclear.
Relentless Push
Schmitz and Papadopoulos are said to have been relentless in pushing for the review of the said materials, regardless of the fact that they were from the dark web.
The dark web is not necessarily the most credible place to get information.
Ultimately, the government agencies seem to have dismissed the material as not credible. They only interviewed Schmitz but refused to accept the material, let alone review it.
Papadopoulos would later plead guilty of lying to the federal agents, further putting the credibility of the material they were pushing in shambles.
It seems the federal agents read malicious efforts from Trump’s camp to malign Clinton at all costs, in as much as there might have been some truth about the emails.
Were there emails deleted from Clinton’s servers? Yes. What was the content of the emails? Nobody knows.
Did the Russians really have the real emails or had they doctored some to malign her? Nobody knows either.
The U.S. intelligence agencies picked up traces of attempts by Russian hackers to steal emails from Clinton’s servers.
The latter two questions are fundamental questions about the whole situation that need comprehensive answers.
Thin Line Between the Truth and The Lies (Writer’s Opinion)
There is a thin line between what is true and what is not in the whole scenario. It has become apparent that the Russians had a hand in those unfolding events.
Did they get a hold of the emails and put them up on the dark web?
If they did, the material could have contained the real emails, and that is possibly why Schmitz was so adamant in trying to get the material reviewed.
On the other hand, the dynamics of the dark web renders any information obtained there incredible.
That being said, I personally think the agencies should have taken a more in-depth examination of the material.
They should have tried to find their source before they landed on the dark web and determined their credibility.
This would likely reveal the extent to which the Russians were involved in the elections, and whether the allegations leveled against Clinton concerning the emails held any water.
The average American will probably never know the truth. What’s interesting is how even politics is ending up on the dark web.
For long, the dark web has only been seen as a source of drugs and a haven for cybercriminals.
It would be interesting to find out what else can be done through the dark web that pertains to politics and governance.
The dark web is becoming a bigger entity than initially thought. The possibilities it offers are endless. I guess we will have to sit tight and wait for the next big thing as far as the dark web is concerned.