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<\/a>Roger Stone speaks to members of the media after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo \/ Andrew Harnik)<\/p><\/div>\n
By\u00a0James Carden<\/p>\n
Of all the various twists and turns of the year-and-a-half-long national drama known as #Russiagate, the effort to\u00a0marginalize and stigmatize<\/a>\u00a0dissent from the consensus Russia-Trump narrative, particularly by\u00a0former<\/a>\u00a0intelligence<\/a>\u00a0and national-security officials and operatives, is among the more alarming.<\/p>\n An invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, filed in July 2017 by a former DNC official and two Democratic donors, alleges that they\u00a0suffered<\/a>\u00a0\u201csignificant distress and anxiety and will require lifelong vigilance and expense\u201d because their personal information was exposed as a result of the e-mail hack of the DNC, which, the suit claims, was part of a conspiracy between Roger Stone and the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n According to a report in\u00a0The New York Times<\/a><\/em>\u00a0published at the time of the suit\u2019s filing, \u201cMr. Trump and his political advisers, including Mr. Stone, have repeatedly denied colluding with Russia, and the 44-page complaint, filed on Wednesday in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia,\u00a0does not contain any hard evidence that his campaign did<\/i>.\u201d (Emphasis added.)<\/p>\n In a new development, in early December, 14 former high-ranking US intelligence and national-security officials, including former deputy secretary of state William Burns; former CIA director John Brennan; former director of national intelligence James Clapper; and former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul (a longtime proponent of democracy promotion, which presumably includes free speech), filed an\u00a0amicus brief<\/a>as part of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The amicus brief purports to explain to the court how Russia deploys \u201cactive measures\u201d that seek \u201cto undermine confidence in democratic leaders and institutions; sow discord between the United States and its allies; discredit candidates for office perceived as hostile to the Kremlin; influence public opinion against U.S. military, economic and political programs; and create distrust or confusion over sources of information.\u201d<\/p>\n The former officials portray the amicus brief as an offering of neutral (\u201cAmici submit this brief on behalf of neither party\u201d) expertise (\u201cto offer the Court their broad perspective, informed by careers spent working inside the U.S. government\u201d).<\/p>\n The brief claims that Putin\u2019s Russia has not only \u201cactively spread disinformation online in order to exploit racial, cultural and political divisions across the country\u201d but also \u201cconducted cyber espionage operations\u2026to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process and, in the general election, influence the results against Secretary Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n