So for the past two days I've been wrestling whether this information deserves being amplified, and I'm still unsure. Because it's pornographic in content, I don't believe it can be shared here.
Those of you who have been checking the FBI-Roger Stone thread (ever since THIS post) will know that what appears to be a snippet of recorded footage of a recording of Donald Trump (or a decent lookalike) in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow Presidential Suite bedroom (or, an exceptionally detailed recreation of it) has been appearing in various places on the internet over the past two weeks.
It seems to have originated on LiveLeak on or around ~January 15th.
From there, it was shared on 4chan, but the original LiveLeak link was swiftly removed due to terms of service violation. This appears to have happened at least twice, because one of the 4chan posts is titled "TRUMP PEE TAPE IS BACK".
Someone also uploaded it on YouTube and I'm sure it appeared elsewhere.
People seemed to generally believe it was fake. Overall, it gained little traction.
Then, another 4chan post about 48 hours ago, i.e. early hours of January 27th (US).
This was amplified somewhat by a thread on the Chapo Trap House subreddit (HERE) and an Imgur rehosting which was shared several times on Twitter and elsewhere. The Imgur upload has remained in place, titled "Fake? Clip of purported Trump "Pee Tape" is making the rounds."
It has been viewed about 60,000 times.
Some points:
1. The base footage appears to be either real, or an expensive recreation (i.e. someone paid $25k to rent out the actual Presidential Suite for a night, or painstakingly recreated it, on top of hiring prostitutes willing to expose themselves in that sort of way, and a Donald Trump lookalike, unless the hoax artist himself just so happens to look like Donald Trump).
2. The media, and intelligence agencies, are most likely aware of it as we speak, and trying to verify its legitimacy. It doesn't seem indisputably dismissible as fake, so it may remain in "limbo" for a long time. Just as the media held onto the Steele Dossier for months, few media organisations are going to be willing to publish it without being able to verify it.
3. If it's a recreation/hoax, this video should not be amplified.
4. Whether or not it's a recreation/hoax, it could be a deliberate leak by the highest levels of Russian intelligence, to spread confusion and division. It's a classic tactic of Russia to spread mixtures of obviously true, obviously false, and ambiguous information to distract and overwhelm. The leakers though would want to carefully maximise how disputable the footage is. I believe the footage does a good job of being both convincing to some, and also easily dismissed by others. It could also be a "deep fake" -- perhaps one of many -- designed by pro-Trump people, to muddy the waters were a real tape to also be leaked.
The reason I'm posting it here is because I'm wondering whether ResetEra detectives can come up with some evidence about this footage that helps confirm its veracity one way or another.
Those of you who have been checking the FBI-Roger Stone thread (ever since THIS post) will know that what appears to be a snippet of recorded footage of a recording of Donald Trump (or a decent lookalike) in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow Presidential Suite bedroom (or, an exceptionally detailed recreation of it) has been appearing in various places on the internet over the past two weeks.
It seems to have originated on LiveLeak on or around ~January 15th.
From there, it was shared on 4chan, but the original LiveLeak link was swiftly removed due to terms of service violation. This appears to have happened at least twice, because one of the 4chan posts is titled "TRUMP PEE TAPE IS BACK".
Someone also uploaded it on YouTube and I'm sure it appeared elsewhere.
People seemed to generally believe it was fake. Overall, it gained little traction.
Then, another 4chan post about 48 hours ago, i.e. early hours of January 27th (US).
This was amplified somewhat by a thread on the Chapo Trap House subreddit (HERE) and an Imgur rehosting which was shared several times on Twitter and elsewhere. The Imgur upload has remained in place, titled "Fake? Clip of purported Trump "Pee Tape" is making the rounds."
It has been viewed about 60,000 times.
Some points:
1. The base footage appears to be either real, or an expensive recreation (i.e. someone paid $25k to rent out the actual Presidential Suite for a night, or painstakingly recreated it, on top of hiring prostitutes willing to expose themselves in that sort of way, and a Donald Trump lookalike, unless the hoax artist himself just so happens to look like Donald Trump).
2. The media, and intelligence agencies, are most likely aware of it as we speak, and trying to verify its legitimacy. It doesn't seem indisputably dismissible as fake, so it may remain in "limbo" for a long time. Just as the media held onto the Steele Dossier for months, few media organisations are going to be willing to publish it without being able to verify it.
3. If it's a recreation/hoax, this video should not be amplified.
4. Whether or not it's a recreation/hoax, it could be a deliberate leak by the highest levels of Russian intelligence, to spread confusion and division. It's a classic tactic of Russia to spread mixtures of obviously true, obviously false, and ambiguous information to distract and overwhelm. The leakers though would want to carefully maximise how disputable the footage is. I believe the footage does a good job of being both convincing to some, and also easily dismissed by others. It could also be a "deep fake" -- perhaps one of many -- designed by pro-Trump people, to muddy the waters were a real tape to also be leaked.
The reason I'm posting it here is because I'm wondering whether ResetEra detectives can come up with some evidence about this footage that helps confirm its veracity one way or another.
