Hi everyone,

My name is Scott Stedman, I'm an investigative journalist whose book "Real News: An Investigative Reporter Uncovers the Foundations of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy" comes out... TODAY!

I've written extensively about Trump Tower Moscow, the NRA, the 2016 Trump Tower meeting(s), George Papadopoulos, suspicious business deals and more. The book highlights my contributions in these areas of inquiry. My work has caused subpoenas, congressional action and has even ended up in some of Mueller's court documents.

I am also an advisor to a decentralized news start up Logos. You can check out the Logos website here as well as a demo video of the product in action.

Proof: https://imgur.com/a/ZtsslpA

Ask me anything!

EDIT: This is a blast. I'm going to stay answering quesitons until 3:30 PM eastern.

EDIT 2: 3:59 eastern, I'm throwing in the towel. Please please please consider picking up a copy of my book and/or telling friends/family about it. I'm so incredibly lucky to be published at 23. It's a dream come true. https://www.amazon.com/Real-News-Investigative-Foundations-Trump-Russia/dp/1510746781/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

EDIT 3: I'll be popping in and answering some more questions in the following days so please feel free to ask some more.

Comments: 2571 • Responses: 92  • Date: 

fierohink823 karma

Do you think there is a path away from news as entertainment, the campaign is more important than the candidate, or lack of repercussions for fraudulent reporting or is unbiased, fact based, uncensored reporting a thing of the past?

-ScottStedman-927 karma

Yes. My preface to the book is about exactly just this. My big message with writing this book is that journalists HAVE to go back to relying on tangible evidence that they can print and show readers (Journalism with Proof in the book). Be more transparent. I understand the need for anonymous sources but where is the true investigative journalism? It's scant.

Tulabean144 karma

Even given the current trend of instant-gratification through news organizations that spoon feed and predominantly offer opinion over news? News consumers don’t really read or investigate anymore, it seems. You don’t even have to work very hard to confirm your biases anymore...Fox or MSNBC is gonna tell you all you need to think - right now!!

(I’m sorry; I’m just so disappointed in it all)

-ScottStedman-260 karma

From my book:

I like to think of the normal blue-collar American worker who

comes home from a hard day at work and turns on the news to see

what has gone on in the world. What he or she finds on TV, however,

is anything but the news. It’s likely some Democrat yelling at a group

of Republicans or vice-versa, with personal insults flying and a painful

dearth of truth.

This attitude can also be widely found on social media, which has

increasingly become infected with purposeful disinformation by foreign

countries, bots, and trolls. These actors have no interest in sharing

fact-based reporting, but rather feed off of the chaos and discord

that comes from a hyperpartisan American population.

There is certainly a place for partisanship in the United States,

though not in the world of investigative journalism. Disagreeing over

politics and even slinging some mud is as American as apple pie. When

there is no separation between these debates and fact-finding investigations,

however, is when we as a population suffer the consequences.

sc00tch26 karma

That's difficult, without anonymous sources we would not have a fraction of the information we have. At some point shouldn't a particular publication's reputation allow a reader to rely on its vetting? Or an individual reporter - If Bob Woodard says he spoke with someone who did not want to reveal their identity, should we not listen to what he says?

Its been a fascinating couple years for a news reader. There has been fantastic investigative reporting, yesterday's Pulitzers are good examples. Julie Brown's work at the Miami Herald is a great example as well.

What I am not sure about is stuff like the famous NYT anonymous op-ed. Do you have thoughts on that?

-ScottStedman-67 karma

I make this more clear in the book but absolutely anonymous sources are needed and vital! My point is that where there are anonymous sources telling you something, there is likely hard evidence to back it up.

Thanks for the question! And yes Julie Brown is a FORCE.

ATHEoST26 karma

And how often is this 'hard evidence' presented to back up their claims?

-ScottStedman-60 karma

Right now? Almost never. It's a shame.

hugenstein42-79 karma

Interesting thought and I agree with it. Clearly though you have a personal bias and even though you don't think so I guarantee you it is 100% reflected in your work.

-ScottStedman-118 karma

Everyone has a bias. That's why documents don't lie.

Ignitus118 karma

2019, where reporting on criminal activity = having a bias

hugenstein42-35 karma

Look at this stuff that he's investigating it's all anti right-wing. If we're talking about journalistic integrity would be interesting to see him investigating the other side too. It would give him more credibility.

-ScottStedman-31 karma

Wrong. I've investigated Hunter Biden/Ukraine, Dems/Blavatnik, Lanny Davis and others.

Case_Study3 karma

What did you find with Joe and Hunter Biden's Ukraine dealings?

A lot of smoke there with HB getting $3M from Burisma.

-ScottStedman-8 karma

A lot of smoke. The fact that he's working directly for Zlochevsky is shady.

veddy_interesting381 karma

Imagine you could administer a truth serum to one person under oath to Congress and ask just one question with no follow-ups.

Which person would you choose? Which question would you ask? And why?

-ScottStedman-421 karma

This is a DAMN GOOD question. I actually sat here for a couple minutes thinking. It would be Joel Zamel of Psy Group and I would ask him if he or any of his companies did any work to support the Trump campaign in 2016.

kale4reals264 karma

What sort of credentials do you have?

tja_1478426 karma

He doesn’t have any. When he’s not stalking the Papadopoulos’ he’s pretending to have insider information with top sources that don’t exist. For example here’s him a few months ago telling a user he knew sources that were going to corroborate the Michael Cohen/Prague story. https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/aa0boq/cell_signal_puts_cohen_outside_prague_around_time/ed6lzn4/

To no one’s surprise a month later we all learned he did not go to Prague.

-ScottStedman--95 karma

Bullshit on the Papadopoulos "fake sources". You should check out all of the documents I have produced from that whole saga.

-ScottStedman--34 karma

Hey, I've written alongside Natasha Bertrand in the Atlantic, Jon Swaine in the Guardian, and my work been endorsed by Congressman Swalwell, Senator Merkeley and others!

-ScottStedman-36 karma

And I graduated from UC Irvine in 2018 with a Political Science degree.

Hobbes-GreatJob233 karma

Do you see a path forward towards ending corporate-funded media?

-ScottStedman-308 karma

God I wish. Important content should never ever ever be behind a hard paywall. I think the future is independent journalism with verification and contributions from everyday people who find the work interesting. That's essentially what Logos is doing. https://logosnews.tech/

roccoccoSafredi96 karma

That's an excellent goal, however... how do journalists pay their bills?

Smart people's time is too valuable to give away for free.

-ScottStedman-103 karma

This is the exact dilemma I am facing right now. I hope there is a world one day where donations and subscriptions for podcasts, etc will be enough to squeak out a life but I'm not sure if it's there yet.

DevTheSledge-35 karma

Are you advocating for state funded media?

-ScottStedman-109 karma

No, I'm advocating for independent, private, decentralized news consumption. Reward the author you think is doing a good job, not the coportate conglomerate to which they are signed.

resc119 karma

What was the most galling or surprising wall of secrecy that you ran into while doing this research?

-ScottStedman-292 karma

The presence of financial crime EVERYTWHERE. Russia, Cyprus, US, UK, Ireland, Belize, Seychelles. Anywhere in the world.

coconutri3 karma

Can you elaborate more on Seychelles?

-ScottStedman-4 karma

It's a popular location for shady Russians and others to keep their money/companies because of strict secrecy laws and lowish taxes.

Tenflo1099 karma

After investigating the Russia/Trump conspiracy, how much has your distrust in democrats grown to this point? Are you worried about how large a scale the dem party's corruption has expanded and what are you fears of what they might do in the future to influence the 2020 election?

-ScottStedman-124 karma

Plenty of shady activities by Dems as well. A bunch took money from Len Blavatnik and Lanny Davis is the lawyer for a Russian-mob connected Ukrainian.

vikinick79 karma

What specifically will you be looking for in the Barr-redacted Mueller report? More specifically, is there anything the media is not covering that you will be looking for in the report?

-ScottStedman-156 karma

I will be looking for the scope of the report on conspiracy, how much is redacted, and something the media doesn't cover - anything involving George Nader.

intucabutucrowt78 karma

How would you respond to journalists like Aaron Maté and Glenn Greenwald who have been reporting for years now that the Trump / Russia collusion story has no substantive evidence supporting it?

-ScottStedman--8 karma

My take is that they are willfully ignorant of the evidence of collusion that we now see.

  1. Campaign manager shares highly detailed internal polling data to a Russian intelligence asset.
  2. The Trump senior leadership meets with Russians in the hopes of getting dirt on Hillary.
  3. Trump/Cohen negotiate for a massive hotel deal in Moscow that would make the Trump Org hundreds of millions. This happens at the same time the Russian government is hacking the DNC.
  4. A legitimate Russian spy infiltrated the NRA

thewannabe_algonquin87 karma

None of what you list here is proof of collusion though. For years everyone has said let Mueller investigate and determine if there should be further indictments. He did, and determined there wouldn’t be. It’s making all non-trump supporter look bad at this point.

-ScottStedman-31 karma

I didn't say proof of collusion, I said evidence of collusion.

Trans_am197859 karma

Is this another self published Amazon book AMAs where it becomes an ad for the book?

-ScottStedman-15 karma

No, my publisher is Skyhose Publishing in NY and they have been amazing!

laszlo58 karma

Do you believe that Barr shut down the probe or that it was at its natural conclusion?

What's your best guess about the thousands of Alfa Bank pings to the Trump server?

-ScottStedman-118 karma

I think Mueller was 10 steps ahead of everyone and farmed out many investigations in DC, EDVA, SDNY, South Dakota so that it would be nearly impossible to shut down the investigation. Natual conclusion? Probably given what we know about the scope.

Not educated enough about the technical details on Alfa/Trump so won't comment there.

shaokim56 karma

Were you surprised by how the investigation ended (and is ending) ?

-ScottStedman-86 karma

Yes and no. No because I never thought Mueller would stick around for more than 2 years because he knew that he only had so much political capital. Yes because it looks like the report is going to be narrow in scope in regards to the conspiracy question. I thought Mueller would've run everything to ground there before issuing a written report.

-ScottStedman-91 karma

I also thought Trump would've been subpoenaed.

Turkmenbashy54 karma

Can you summarize everything that's happened between you, Papadopoulos , and his current wife? I know you've been going back and forth a lot, but a narrative would be useful for understanding it.

-ScottStedman-141 karma

Hard to do in a short reply but I'll do my best.

Simona Papadopoulos began pushing the "spygate" theory that George was entrapped, so I started to look into her background. She lied about multiple things, her employment history, education history, her age, and she even doctored a picture of her passport to show ABC.

flekkzo54 karma

Will there be any real consequences to those involved or is it simply a matter of feeding scapegoats to the underside of the bus ad naseum?

-ScottStedman-135 karma

Multiple ongoing investigations. If you did something shady in 2015/2016 that Mueller looked into, I still wouldn't be sleeping well.

iceblademan52 karma

Hi Scott,

Could you elaborate more on what you think the exact scope of the Mueller probe was? From what I understand from your twitter feed it seems like it was quite limited.

-ScottStedman-70 karma

I think in regards to Conspiracy/collusion he (or someone) limited it to the activities of the IRA and the GRU and if there was any agreements made between the two sides.

-ScottStedman--25 karma

It's lame to comment on something no one has seen.

shabby4749 karma

What do you think the Mueller (Barr) report on Thursday will include, and what will it leave out?

-ScottStedman-61 karma

Reading the leaflets from Barr's bizarre memos and recent Manafort court filings, I think the report will be fairly narrow yet filled with a bunch of new details, especially on Obstruction. I expect the collusion/conspiracy side to be limited to the Russian election meddling activities in 2016 (the troll farm and the hacking).

VarsityBluez48 karma

  1. What does the future hold for Joel Zamel (Psygroup, WikiStrat, et al)?

  2. To what extent do these similarly situated Mossad outfits coordinate with, or utilize the resources of, active Israeli intelligence officials/Mossad itself? Any evidence that PsyGroup/WikiStrat had help from Mossad in their 2016 election efforts?

  3. Lastly, can we expect to see more of these psychological operations campaigns in the 2020 election (and/or internationally)?

-ScottStedman-67 karma

  1. I'm going to be reporting on this soon.
  2. I might be writing about this soon too. I think the Israeli government was much more involved with Psy Group and Black Cube than is public.
  3. Yes! Be cognizant. Follow people like @RVAWonk on Twitter.

soldieronspeed36 karma

So based on some of your responses I have to ask you how you feel about the current state of media bias and the importance of objective reporting?

-ScottStedman-38 karma

It exists and it can't be ignored. The free press is really amazing but we have to keep it in line sometimes. Objective/independent reporting has been slowly drending downhill.

orangejulius32 karma

Hey Scott -

Without an open impeachment inquiry, it'll be impossible to obtain an unredacted version of the Mueller Report.

Pelosi has stated she won't open the inquiry unless her GOP colleagues decide that's what they want to do. Do you think that was a good decision?

-ScottStedman-39 karma

Congress should have had the full unredacted Mueller report a month ago, especially the House Intel and Judiciary Committes. They are an equal branch with security clearances!

The public should have a report with redactions only to protect human sources and methods. The Grand Jury info should've been requested by Barr day 1.

BerkshireHathaway-142 karma

They are an equal branch with security clearances!

You are aware that is not true, right? No member of Congress, unless they got it prior to being elected, is given clearance. Information is given to them on a "need-to-know" basis and that there are zero written rules about how or what will be shared with Congress.

EDIT: If OP is gonna edit their post to add "especially the House Intel and Judiciary Committes" you should at least mention that you edited it...

-ScottStedman--50 karma

Might want to read the phrase before that sentence.

dorianSlay31 karma

Did u ever think anyone would take u seriously with that haircut/colour?

-ScottStedman-7 karma

I think I look pretty hot.

Jethuth_Chritht24 karma

How much and what kind of legal action can we expect from the "several ongoing investigations" that have splintered off into the SDNY and elsewhere?

-ScottStedman-55 karma

I think there is a healthy amount of ongoing investigations. My reading is that Mueller decided to not prosecute anything directly related to the Russian election meddling. This excludes possible FCPA violations with the Putin $50M penthouse bribe, anything involving the Psy Group episode/offer of help from the UAE and Saudi, and whatever the hell Manafort was sharing with Kilimnik.

Bakuninophile24 karma

Do you think there is any legitimacy in questioning the motives of the start of the investigation, as has been noted by Barr recently?

-ScottStedman-8 karma

No. The Carter Page FISA is entirely warrented in my eyes.

CapNemoMac20 karma

What sources and connections do you have to people in DOJ / FBI / Mueller’s team that help you to expose this story better than other journalists?

-ScottStedman-25 karma

I have no sources in Mueller's team nor does anyone else.

llamaDev19 karma

Why didn't they question Julian Assange?

-ScottStedman--4 karma

Wheels of justice move slow, especially in cases like this. He could easily face more charges in the coming years.

Salaundre17 karma

What was the question you wanted answered that prompted this investigation and was it answered?

-ScottStedman--9 karma

Is the President compromised? No answer yet.

kingshmiley12 karma

Do you think decentralized is the future of the news industry? How will it change the way we get our news?

-ScottStedman-10 karma

100%. I see the rise of Medium, Logos, and Patreon as a potential road map. I think I'm like a lot of people who don't want to give money to every damn news site I read just to be able to see the content.

Put the content out for free, and people will donate if your content is good.

Papshmire12 karma

Why are all these people concerned about FISA warrants against them? Isn't it common sense that if you travel or communicate across international borders that you open yourself up to surveillance, not just from the United States, but many other countries as well?

-ScottStedman-46 karma

We have to protect our civil liberties but if you are meeting with Russian intelligence assets, flying to Moscow and meeting with senior leaders, you kind of bring it on yourself.

BropolloCreed68 karma

Who, specifically, "flew to Moscow and met with 'senior leaders'"? And who were these alleged senior leaders? What positions did they fill in the Russian government?

-ScottStedman-47 karma

Carter Page. He met with a top executive at Rosneft, Andrey Baranov as well as had a handshake and exchange with Russian Deputy PM Dvorkovich and others.

thequartermexican10 karma

who do you think is behind the mystery country fighting the grand jury? QIA? VSB? why?

i'm baffled by all the drama between you and george and simona P. what started it, what has transpired and, importantly, why?

You've had DMs with them, can you divulge what the heck is going on? are they together, are they divorcing, is she leaving the country, is he running for office? what's the deal?

-ScottStedman-15 karma

My best guess for the mystery company is either QIA or VEB in Russia. They are the only two companies that seem to git in the category of 'company Mueller is interested in, wholly owned by a foreign government, with at least some presence in NYC.'

Jilsano10 karma

Hey Scott, thanks for doing this.

What level of evidence of conspiracy with the IRA and/or GRU do you expect Mueller to present in regards to the Trump campaign, associates, and Trump himself? Especially given that most people's understanding of the Mueller probe involved investigating quid pro quo, and not an actual agreement regarding the hacking or troll dissemination.

Everyone seems to be making hay out of the quote that the investigation could not establish a conspiracy, and expecting that the evidence might be quite strong but just not beyond a reasonable doubt. However, it seems like the evidence of such a conspiracy with the IRA and GRU might be rather thin, and there may be yet another letdown on Thursday for Trump critics. The strong evidence, to my mind, would be in election help/financial opportunities for sanctions and foreign policy.

What is your opinion? Thanks again!

-ScottStedman-43 karma

I 100% agree with you. It's possible that the quid-pro-quo investigations were handed off to EDVA and SDNY. I don't think anyone expected Trump and his team to have a direct agreement with the IRA or GRU. And even if they did, if you don't get Manafort talking, you don't get Kilimnik talking, you don't get Deripaska talking and you simply might not have enough for a case.

Useful_Paperclip-36 karma

What quid-pro-quo? Trump hasnt done anything meaningful for Russia

-ScottStedman-43 karma

Might want to look into the sweet deals Oleg Deripaska is getting right about now.

writesmusic9 karma

So what are your plans for your next career?

-ScottStedman-0 karma

Up in the air! Trying to figure it out as we speak.

slakmehl7 karma

Hey Scott - thanks for doing an AMA. You do good work. One of the more tantalizing threads of the last couple of years were a pair of McClatchy articles: one in April stating that Mueller had evidence Cohen was in Prague, and one later in December characterizing this evidence as cell phone pings to towers around Prague and intercepts of GRU communications referring to Cohen in Prague.

McClatchy is a respected outlet, but they remain on an island on this story all the way up to the present day. No one else ever corroborated, and the two authors (Peter Stone and Greg Gordon) have now left McClatchy, although neither article has been retracted.

But you mentioned at one point that other outlets were "close" to corroborating. Since then, Michael Cohen has continued to emphatically deny ever being in Prague, and it would be astonishing if Mueller wrapped up without having running this to ground. It seems virtually certain the Cohen/Prague allegation in the dossier was bad intel, as were the intercepted GRU communications referenced by McClatchy.

Do you agree? If so, what do you think happened here?

Best of luck with your book.

-ScottStedman-8 karma

I'm hoping to write some longform about this eventually, but basically my current understanding is that the reporting was such a game of telephone between retired spies (who have largely been discredited) and at least one journo (none of the McClatchy fellas) who has had a recent blockbuster story taken down and corrected.

bnlv6 karma

If there were a Venn Diagram of your work and the book that Seth Abramson published, how much overlap would there be?

-ScottStedman-4 karma

Good question. I like Seth and his work, but he is a self admitted "curatorial journalist" whereas my book is largely exclusive reporting.

jgallant19904 karma

Ah, I see after further search that my question had already been asked. In that case, could you give a brief explanation of the difference between the two (curatorial/exclusive reporting)?

Thanks!

-ScottStedman-12 karma

Sure! Curatorial = aggregating others work and reminding people of all of the info that has been published already. It's a really important job.

Exclusive reporting (something I am going to brand forensic journalism) actually does the work in producing the breaking news stories.

HorkyBamf5 karma

[deleted]

-ScottStedman-18 karma

No evidence that she "trapped" anyone other than Erickson.

savagedan5 karma

Do you have faith in Barrs summary of Muellers investigation?

-ScottStedman-8 karma

Not as far as I can throw it.

J_Schermie5 karma

Before you go, how do you think this will end?

-ScottStedman-2 karma

10% impeachment.

45% he wins re-election

45% he loses re-election

ilanrocketsocket5 karma

Have you read George Papdopolous' new book? It seems like he's very confused.

-ScottStedman-16 karma

I have. It's riddled with errors, especially his stuff about Charles Tawil and Sergei Millian.

RickGrimesLol4 karma

Do you find that being young has a significant impact on how people, especially older people, receive your journalism?

-ScottStedman-7 karma

Good question. I actually find that older people are refreshed by my somewhat unorthodox approach to my journalism. I realize it's not conventional.

edgy_secular_memes3 karma

I'm a second year journalism student in school right now. I'm curious what advice do you for have up and coming journalists?

-ScottStedman-10 karma

Research, research, research, and then send to influential people. Social media is an incredible tool, make sure you're using it effectively.

edgy_secular_memes4 karma

I have used social media already for it. My viewed blog post has got 313 votes. I’ve also gotten the chance to interview the former leader of Ontario (Kathleen Wynne) so it’s worked well for so far

-ScottStedman-8 karma

One of my first stories got 680 views, also DM me on Twitter it sounds interesting.

kellylynn2233 karma

How did you get your start as an investigative journalist? You're so young and I am about to graduate college with a journalism and political science degree... help!

-ScottStedman--2 karma

Start a blog. Only post articles with hard evidence. And send it to everyone who might be interested!

-ScottStedman--51 karma

It was really organic! I wrote a blog post on Medium in November 2017 and everything just kind of grew naturally. I sent tips to all of the major news orgs and they didn't respond to I just went ahead and printed the documents and articles I had on Papadopoulos.

jaber23 karma

Color me old but I have a hard time trusting anything digital being a reliable means of getting real news, however I can see me using your platform to checkout whats going on with the Kardasians. How can you a credible source of news?

-ScottStedman--5 karma

I'd encourage you to pick up the book. I understand your skepticism and tried to alleviate some of your worries by the way I went about my journalism.

vikinick3 karma

Do you have any theories about what the mysterious foreign corporation that fought the subpoena was? I've heard Rosneft and Gazprom (Russian oil companies) but also heard it could be the Qatari Investment Authority.

-ScottStedman-16 karma

We learned from WaPo that it was a "financial institution" so it isn't Rosneft or Gazprom. QIA and VEB are my guesses.

-ScottStedman-9 karma

Although 1MDB is a possibility too.

vikinick2 karma

Qatari Investment Authority would be interesting. Do you have any theories as to what they would be subpoenaed for? I mean obviously they could be related to Manafort's dealings, but I would think they might also be related to the whole Kushner thing.

-ScottStedman-6 karma

Kushner/666 5th Ave, Cohen's meeting with a QIA official during the transition, or maybe the Rosneft deal.

JMBAD12221 karma

With what frequency do you find that your work is not considered valid among certain crowds, not because it’s not articulate or well-investigated, but because you yourself are so young? Are often are you written off as a reliable reporter because of this?

-ScottStedman-2 karma

Yeah it happens often. Mostly a thing with the far left actually.

OldMcFart1 karma

I'm guessing you have no plans to roam around Moscow at night anytime soon?

-ScottStedman-3 karma

Yes, probably on the 10th floor somewhere

d_j_smith1 karma

You have some well developed ideas about what a good news organization should be and do. Can you give a short list of those you would trust most about breaking news?

-ScottStedman--19 karma

Jon Passantino and the BuzzFeed team.

Micah Grimes.

Caroline Orr.

Ronan Farrow.

Carole Cadwalladr.

There's more but those came to mind.

seraph3411 karma

Any tips for someone who is trying to start a carreer as a journalist? Would one be considered too old for it at 27?

-ScottStedman-2 karma

In this day and age? Hell no you're not too old. Learn how to use the internet to its fullest capabilities, be persistent with asking people questions.

LeeYael281 karma

Advise to me, a future journalism graduate?

-ScottStedman-2 karma

People are more willing to talk than you think. Try everything. And play up the student angle as long as you can :)

AttainEquilibrium1 karma

How did you get into this field of investigative journalism? Have you always known you wanted to be journo? Any advice for kids who aim to be journalists?

-ScottStedman-10 karma

I had no idea! Mom always told me I'd be a writer but I didn't believer her until about 2 years ago.

My advice is to focus on pieces of journalism that can't be discredited. Get those corporate documents, get those flight logs, try to convince a soure to go on the record, and published them!

bixxler1 karma

What’s your favorite story/case about corruption, unrelated to Trump? Something you grew up on professionally, what inspired you.

-ScottStedman-6 karma

Really good question. I have a long history of law enforcement officers in my family, so it probably mostly came from there. The Spiro Agnew case is something I read about a lot. As well as the case of Robert Hanssen

funknut1 karma

Hoping you are still available. According to overwhelming reporting, Julian Assange's recent indictment was urged by the Trump admin. Would you be surprised to find evidence that the indictment was a further effort to obstruct or otherwise prevent the leaking of any potentially indictable Trump related evidence?

edit: also, I'm disappointed by the brigade, or whatever happened here. i imagine better timing for higher exposure would have overwhelmed the brigade.

-ScottStedman-2 karma

Good question. I’d be surprised if this was a ploy to obstruct. The DOJ case into Assange has been going on for years and his charges relate to the Chelsea Manning stuff so I think it was just continuation of that work by those at DOJ

new-man20 karma

Do you suspect that there are Russian trolls and others attempting to misinform and steer people away from the truth in this very thread? What would you think there methods would look like?

-ScottStedman-2 karma

Absolutely. There was a sentence that was recycled almost word for word by 50+ accounts.

mywallstbetsacct-1 karma

How did you get started doing what you do? Break-in so to speak?

Wohl VS Loomer in a grift-off, who wins?

-ScottStedman-4 karma

I literally just started reporting while I was a senior in college and everything grew pretty organically.

Loomer wins.

jgallant1990-1 karma

Hey, thanks for doing this!

Are you aware of Seth Abramson? Is there much of a crossover with the work you both do?

-ScottStedman-5 karma

Yep! Seth has shouted out my work a bunch of times. There is some crossover but I'd say the book is mostly none of that crossover work.

BIGBOIIONGIB-1 karma

What is your favorite color?

-ScottStedman-3 karma

baby blue

sepseven-1 karma

Dude thank you so much for all you do to help keep our democracy intact. People like you inspire me so much, I (mid 20s American male) suffer from a decent amount of mental and physical disabilities and there is so much I struggle with, but lately it seems like a huge amount of my time is spent on wrestling with the depressing turn of events that's befallen our precious communities, how it feels like our government is not just incompetent but at times malicious and self destructive and if we could ever make things right for the millions of people whose property, health, rights and lives have been damaged or destroyed as a result. One of the few things that gives me relief is knowing there are people like you out there who can do what I can't and spend their time fighting for the good of all of us. Thank you so much for everything. I know you're done answering questions but I had to try. Here's my question:

Do you ever feel hopeless? How do you deal with it? Thank you.

-ScottStedman-1 karma

Hi, thank you for your comment. I do feel hopeless sometimes. Usually when that happens I eventually find some angle to investigate that sparks my interest again. But its daunting sometimes, yeah, but our country has been through a hell of a lot worse.

TransposingJons-4 karma

Will you be on any interview shows to talk about your book?

I'm very grateful for investigative reporters, so THANK YOU !!!

-ScottStedman-5 karma

It's hard for me due to anxiety but I'm doing my best! I was on the Mueller She Wrote podcast a couple days ago, doing a radio tour tomorrow morning on Premiere Networks and then recording wiht the Mueller Time podcast in the late morning.

TractionJackson-4 karma

What's your favorite breakfast food?

-ScottStedman-7 karma

Give me all of the hash browns in the world.

CorpCounsel-6 karma

I've always wanted to ask a journalist if it ever just gets tiresome of dealing with the "fake news" and "ignorance is a right" crowds on social media.

Is it ever demoralizing to know that no matter how well you do your work, about half the population will immediately respond with "Its not true" or talk about something Clinton said 10 years ago?

-ScottStedman-22 karma

Yes. It's maddening sometimes. That's why journalists need to publish information and documents that are un-"fake news"-able.

bent42-8 karma

That's missing the point a bit, isn't it? The cry of "fake news" doesn't care about unassailable facts.

-ScottStedman-18 karma

The cries of fake news, while largely ridiculous and illegitimate, are rooted in some truth. There have been Trump-Russia stories retracted, heavily edited and almost always based on anonymous sources. We can't ignore that fact.

not_that_planet-7 karma

Hi Scott. Thanks for taking your time to do this.

I have heard the argument that although the Barr Memo quotes a line from the Mueller Report saying there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Rusian Government, that it could be the real collusion was between the Trump Campaign and Russian oligarchs.

Is there any reasonableness to this?

-ScottStedman-0 karma

Kinda. I don't think Barr would twist it THAT MUCH but it's important to note that there's not one completely sentence from the Mueller report in the Barr memo.

Starksincethe80s-10 karma

How do you deal with the stress of it all? I am frustrated enough from my couch with the brazen corruption

-ScottStedman-9 karma

Friends and vacations.

Starksincethe80s2 karma

Damn I was hoping for an answer I could emulate but your comment dashed those dreams. Thanks for the response and hard work

-ScottStedman-2 karma

Good music. I have suggestions if you're interested .

Starksincethe80s1 karma

I haven't gone on a new music binge in a long time so yes thank you that would be awesome

-ScottStedman-9 karma

Really love Interpol, the Voidz (especially Virtue their newest album), Kanye's new stuff, Tame Impala.

YankeeTexasAggie-13 karma

Thanks, have been following your work! Great job.

1) On the initial release of the Barr document, it was reported by news outlets that there would be no further indictments, but last week Craig was indicted (and seemed to be from the Mueller work). Can you explain the gap?

2) re: Kushner meeting in December 2016 with Gorkov. Do we know what Kushner was pursuing? Has that ever been made public?

-ScottStedman-11 karma

  1. Craig wasn't indicted by Mueller's core team. It was part of the stuff he farmed out to SDNY.
  2. No, this remains largely a secret.

tennessee_jedi-17 karma

First off, congrats on the book - I'll definitely check it out; and thank you for serving the good of our country in your own way.

My number one question I guess would be how were you able to accomplish what you've done at such a young age? My interpretation of journalism as an institution, and especially investigative journalism, is that success is largely dependent on your sources. The more/better sources a reporter has, the more access they have to information that would otherwise be unavailable to them. That said, I guess my question then is has the work you've done been dependent on highly placed sources? If so, how were you able to cultivate these relationships and the requisite trust so early in your career? And if not, where/how did you get the majority of your information from? Given that your work ended up leading to subpoenas, action from Congress, and in the hands of the Special Counsel I assume you either beat other reporters from more established outlets (ie the NYT, WaPo, etc.) to the punch, or had knowledge they didn't.

Either way I cant wait to check out your book!

(Please forgive me if you've answered this elsewhere or in your writing, I only read your OP)

-ScottStedman-12 karma

I've touched on this in other posts so I'll mention it briefly here. 90% of my work is not based on human sources.

I go to governments and get documents and hard evidence. That's how I got the Manafort info that ended up in Mueller's indictment. I got the documents from one of his Cyprus businesses and found a loan that was suspicious.

bigsteven34-18 karma

Hey man, been following the feed for about a year now. Don't really have a question, but wanted to say keep up the good work man!

-ScottStedman--3 karma

bigsteven34

Thank you Steven!!!

otiswilbury1-23 karma

Will the decision by Barr/Rosenstein not to charge obstruction, prove to be obstruction in itself?

-ScottStedman--4 karma

Don't think it will rise to the level of a crime but it's certainly really shady and probably unethical.

DemonEggy-35 karma

It's a shame you're getting so many abusive comments from cultists. Ignore them.

I have a couple question.

1) Who do you think has done the consistently best reporting on the whole Trump/Russia ordeal?

2) What do you think was the most important story that never "took off" and got the attention it deserves?

Edit: Wow, the brigading in this thread is pretty spectacular!

-ScottStedman-5 karma

  1. This is difficult. I really love what BuzzFeed News has done. Same with Ronan Farrow, Mimi Rocha, and of course Natasha Bertrand.
  2. Psy Group. I'll shout it until the day I die.

noinf0-37 karma

The single email Donald Trump Jr released showed the Russian government offered help and the campaign welcomed it... Why do you think people believe that the Russian investigation was based on a "hoax?"

-ScottStedman--5 karma

Donald Trump Jr was compromised the second he hit send on that email. The Russians had him. They knew that this would devastatingly hurt the campaign if this secret meeting were to come to light.

cahaseler-41 karma

That's awesome!

So, what's the deal with Barr? Is he just straight up compromised? Or did the Mueller report really not discover anything.

-ScottStedman-15 karma

I want to see Barr's redacted report first but I think the ultimate goal here was for Trump and his team to have a month to run around and yell "no collusion no conspiracy" before the public could see any of the evidence. The report is not going to be good for Trump.

As far as Barr, it's an enigma. He certainly has the history of participating in coverups (see Iran Contra) so I don't see how you can give him the benefit of the doubt here.

AlexanderESmith-42 karma

When I think back on the mountain of information that clearly indicates that Trump is either a puppet for, or a collaborator with, various unsavory entities (home and abroad), only one question comes to mind;

What is it going to take to get rid of him?

We get new information day after day, any small portion of which would have completely destroyed another president's career and reputation, and nothing happens.

-ScottStedman-24 karma

Find a candidate you support and donate, support, volunteer, etc.