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NSA director says U.S. "disrupted a concerted effort to undermine" 2018 midterms

25 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

The U.S. "disrupted a concerted effort to undermine the midterm elections" in 2018, writes NSA Director and head of U.S. Cyber Command Paul Nakasone, along with senior Cyber Command adviser Michael Sulmeyer, in Foreign Affairs.

Why it matters: Nakasone and Sulmeyer reveal that lessons from those incidents are being used to protect November's election from foreign interference.

  • Experts at the NSA and Cyber Command "formed the Russia Small Group (RSG), a task force created to ensure that democratic processes were executed unfettered by Russian activity."
  • "It shared indicators of potential compromise, enabling DHS to harden the security of election infrastructure."
  • "It also shared threat indicators with the FBI to bolster that organization’s efforts to counter foreign trolls on social media platforms."

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.