
Marco Rubio reveals more details of AI impersonation scam
And it seems that it the scam may have started earlier than previously known, as Rubio said he was also impersonated when he first took the State Department position. He revealed Thursday that he found out about the scam after a current senator who had gotten a fake message purporting to be from him called back. The episode prompted the secretary to alert the FBI . Rubio defended his own communications practices by saying it 'could happen to anybody.' 'It could happen to anybody – everybody – especially if you're a public figure,' Rubio told reporters while attending a meeting with foreign ministers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.
'They just got to get enough – like they could take the interview out of here today and change it around,' he said. 'As soon as I found out about it last week, I referred it to the FBI, [State Department] Diplomatic Security and others. It won't be the last time you see me or others, for that matter. Maybe some of you will be impersonated, but it's just a reality of this AI technology that's going on, and it's a real threat. As Rubio explained it, 'somebody called me – a senator that called me and said, "Hey, did you just try to reach me?"' The senator then sent Rubio a voicemail recording of his own AI generated voice. He wasn't impressed. "It doesn't sound, doesn't really sound like me. If you fell for that call ...' he said, dissing the impersonation.
He brushed off questions about use of less secure messaging apps like Signal – the source of a massive scandal that led to the ouster of Trump's previous national security advisor Mike Waltz. 'It doesn't matter what form you use a Signal or anything else,' said Rubio. 'I've had people in the past ask me if I texted – like, within days of becoming Secretary of State, I had foreign ministers calling the State Department asking if I had just texted them. So I don't know, guys, this is just the reality of the 21st Century with AI and fake stuff that's going on. Generally I communicate with my counterparts around the world to official channels for a reason, and that's to avoid this,' he said.
Rubio didn't say outright whether those early calls from foreign ministers were the result of fake texts. The Daily Mail has contacted the State Department for clarification. Rubio also speculated on a potential motive. 'My sense is the target really isn't me. The target is the people they're reaching out to, to try to trick them into a call or whatever. And who knows what they do with it?' he said. Rubio's view on the security of his practices wasn't entirely shared by former Biden national security spokesman Sean Savett.
He said it 'definitely could happen to anyone anytime, but the prevalent use of Signal and non-official means of communication likely make it easier for bad actors to spoof government officials because people are more willing to assume a communication not from [U.S. Government] accounts could be legitimate.' 'Simply put,' he told the Daily Mail, 'the more they use Signal, the more susceptible they'll be to scammers or malicious actors impersonating them on Signal.' U.S. officials are hunting for the culprit, and assess that it is part of a plan to mop up information, the Washington Post reported this week.
In the Rubio scam, someone purporting to be the secretary of state who also serves as Trump's national security advisor dialed three foreign secretaries, as well as a governor and a U.S. member of Congress 'with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,' according to a cable obtained by the Post. The imposter 'contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,' according to the July 3 cable, in a scam that began in mid-June. Rubio's comments on the security beach came after he held 'frank' talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after President Trump has publicly shared increased frustration with Russia over its attacks on Ukraine.
'It was a frank conversation. It was an important one,' Rubio told reporters. He said U.S. and Russian negotiators have exchanged new ideas – while stopping short of declaring anything approaching a breakthrough. 'I think it´s a new and a different approach,' Rubio said. 'I wouldn't characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it´s a concept that, you know, that I´ll take back to the president.' Trump has issued a series of comments expressing concern about Russia's trajectory, saying he was 'disappointed' following his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin which came hours before Russia unleashed a massive drone attack on July 4.
On July 8, Trump vented about Putin in uncharacteristic terms. He usually stresses how well they get along. 'We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, [if] you want to know the truth,' Trump groused. 'He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.' Trump also said hew was 'very strongly' considering sanctions that would hit Russia by targeting countries that continue to purchase its oil. 'We'll have more to say about that later this week,' he said. The countries include China, India, and Brazil, as well as some European countries, and could finally allow a crackdown on Russia's efforts to get around other sanctions imposed after its 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent invasion of Ukraine.
That comes after Russia was conspicously absent from the list of nations Trump is hitting with new 'reciprocal' tariffs in a series of letters rolled out this week. They went to key allies including Japan and South Korea. During a meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, Trump announced a shock U-turn on providing weapons to Ukraine , which had been mysteriously paused. 'We're going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,' said Trump.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump's attempts at damage control on Epstein are just making things worse
Donald Trump's evident panic over his intimate relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is a case study in damage control gone haywire. If he is trying to keep a scandal clandestine, Trump has instead shined a klieg light on it. His changeable diversions constantly call attention to what he wishes to remain hidden. His prevarications, projections and protests have scrambled his allies and set them against each other. His inability to remain silent on the subject makes him appear as twitchy as a suspect in the glare of a third-degree police interrogation. The supine Republican Congress abruptly adjourned for the summer to flee the incessant demands for the release of files in the possession of the Department of Justice. But three Republicans broke to vote with Democrats on the House oversight committee to demand the Epstein files. The speaker, Mike Johnson, abandoning his assigned role as a Trump echo chamber, blurted, 'This is not a hoax,' directly contradicting Trump. Johnson's plain statement prompted widespread jaw dropping. With every rattled excuse, Trump throws his administration into further chaos. His cabinet members are pitted against each other – the attorney general, Pam Bondi, versus the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a pair of scorpions in a bottle. Trump has succeeded in driving Bondi from her regular perch on Fox News, as his reliable apologist, into virtual seclusion. She has reportedly engaged in a screaming match with the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, a former far-right talkshow jock who made his bones parroting that the Epstein files held the secrets of a vast conspiracy to blackmail deep state actors. After she issued a statement that there was no such 'client list', he apparently sulked at home, declining to come into the office, upset that his reputation was being sullied with his former Maga listeners. Bondi accused him of leaking unfavorable stories to the media that blamed her for the Maga backlash against her announcement. The manosphere bigmouth, sensitive about his hurt feelings, was in a tizzy, oh dear. 'No, no, she's given us just a very quick briefing,' Trump said on 15 July about whether Bondi had told him his name was in the files. 'I would say that, you know, these files were made up by [the former FBI director James] Comey, they were made up by [Barack] Obama, they were made up by the Biden administration.' The next day he posted on Truth Social that 'Radical Left Democrats' and 'the Fake News' were behind 'the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax'. A week later, on 23 July, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi had briefed Trump in May that his name appeared in the Epstein files. Which also raised the question: what did Elon Musk know and from whom did he know it when he tweeted in June that Trump's name was in the files, a tweet he quickly deleted after he had played arsonist? Did Bondi and the FBI director, Kash Patel, inform him about Trump's presence in the Epstein documents? Where else would he have gotten the idea? Into the death valley of parched alibis stepped Tulsi Gabbard to win Trump's affection with a press conference orchestrated at the White House on the same day the Journal punctured Trump's lie about Bondi briefing him on the Epstein files. Gabbard was there to expose a 'treasonous conspiracy' of Obama administration officials who supposedly plotted to manufacture the 'Russiagate' scandal that Putin sought to help Trump in the 2016 election, which was a fact. Her presentation was a farrago of falsehoods. She conflated Russian interference with false claims that Obama fabricated information about Russian hacking of voting machines and other fairytales. Gabbard also triumphantly unveiled a report that Hillary Clinton was on a 'daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers', which was sheer propaganda concocted by Russian intelligence long debunked as 'objectively false' by the FBI. Gabbard's performance unselfconsciously portrayed herself as a useful idiot for Russian spies. Trump was ecstatic. 'She's, like, hotter than everybody. She's the hottest one in the room right now,' he said. He posted that the Democrats 'are playing another Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax but, this time, under the guise of what we will call the Jeffrey Epstein SCAM'. Bondi was reportedly frustrated with Gabbard. Bondi had been given little warning that Gabbard's work would be dumped in her lap 'for criminal referral', apparently in order to satisfy Trump's appetite for revenge. Bondi had been the catalyst of the 'client list' pseudo-scandal, claiming it was sitting on her desk. Always ready to gratify Trump's whims, she was not prepared to be sideswiped by Gabbard. In the pursuit of Trump's favor, one lackey lapped another. Bondi finessed the situation by appointing a special 'strike force' to examine and undoubtedly dismiss yet again Trump's attempt to blot out the conclusive official reports, from the Mueller report to the report by the Senate intelligence committee, chaired by then senator Marco Rubio, that had documented his campaign's involvement with Russian agents in 2016. Bondi appeared to be seething in announcing the 'strike force', going out of her way to describe Gabbard as 'my friend'. The grueling Trump cabinet dance marathon goes round and round until they drop. To demonstrate Obama's supposed guilt, Trump posted an AI-generated video showing Obama forced to his knees and shackled in chains by federal agents before a seated and smiling Trump in the Oval Office to the soundtrack of the song YMCA. Trump apparently thinks that depicting himself as an enslaver, President Simon Legree, is a positive image that can deflect questions about his sexually predatory behavior and Epstein relationship. 'He's done criminal acts,' said Trump about Obama, and he mused, 'There's no question about it, but he has immunity. He owes me big.' Trump was referring to the supreme court's ruling granting him 'absolute' immunity for 'official acts' that wound up relieving him of prosecution for the January 6 insurrection. As Trump explained it, he was responsible for the decision, at least through justices he had appointed, and Obama was indebted to him over 'crimes' that Trump himself had made up to make the Epstein shadow disappear. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Then, after Trump tried the certain loser of a gambit of requesting the release of the Epstein grand jury material, which would almost certainly contain nothing new and was inevitably denied by the judge, he turned to another tactic. Suddenly, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who had been Trump's personal attorney in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial, in which Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, was sent racing to Tallahassee to interview Epstein's imprisoned co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. No mere professional prosecutor would do for this high-level mission. Instead, in an unprecedented move, the deputy attorney general would conduct the interrogation. The case, in fact, was closed after Maxwell's indictment for perjury, conviction for sex-trafficking minors and 20-year sentence. Yet Blanche stated, sloppily misspelling her first name in his haste, 'If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.' He said that Maxwell can 'finally say what really happened', as if she would perhaps prove the existence of the fictional 'client list' or some version of it to incriminate the enemies it contained, or clear Trump as a gentleman beyond reproach. Blanche's remark seemed to dangle a pardon or clemency. Asked about the possibility, Trump said, 'I'm allowed to do it.' Curiously, on 14 July, the solicitor general, D John Sauer, who was Trump's lawyer in the presidential immunity case before the US court of appeals, had filed a brief to the supreme court opposing relief that Maxwell had requested. 'From about 1994 to 2004, petitioner 'coordinated, facilitated, and contributed to' the multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of numerous young women and underage girls,' Sauer wrote. She could not be exempt from her conviction on the basis of Epstein's first trial agreement as she claimed; she had been fairly tried, convicted and the matter was closed. But the acceleration of the Epstein backlash apparently flipped the administration's position. Now, Blanche gave Maxwell a grant of limited immunity. Her attorney, David O Markus, was a good friend of Blanche's. In the Stormy Daniels hush-money case, he had offered Blanche the advice that he should impeach Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, as a witness against him, by characterizing him as 'GLOAT' –the 'Greatest Liar of All Time'. In 2024, Blanche appeared twice on Markus's little-watched podcast. 'I consider you a friend,' said Blanche. Blanche asked Maxwell over two days about 100 people, according to Markus. Who those people might be, what she was asked and what she said remain unknown. One wonders, for example, if Blanche inquired about her knowledge of Trump's adventures in the dressing rooms of underaged models and beyond. One prominent model agent, quoted in a 2023 story in Variety, 'Inside the Fashion World's Dark Underbelly of Sexual and Financial Exploitation: 'Modeling Agencies Are Like Pimps for Rich People,'' said that Trump was 'certainly' a 'fixture'. 'I would see Donald Trump backstage at [Fashion Week home] Bryant Park, and I'm like, 'Why is he standing there when there's a 13-year-old changing?' In 1992, Trump got George Houraney, a Florida businessman, to sponsor a 'calendar girl' competition with 28 young models who were flown to Mar-a-Lago. But there were reportedly only two guests. 'It was him and Epstein,' Houraney said to the New York Times. 'I said, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs. You're telling me it's you and Epstein?'' One of those models, Karen Mulder, who had appeared on the cover of Vogue the year before and was considered among the most elite supermodels, described her experience with Trump and Epstein as 'disgusting', according to the Miami Herald. A year later, in 1993, Epstein brought a Sport Illustrated swimsuit model, Stacey Williams, to Trump Tower. She had met the future president at a Christmas party in 1992. 'It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,' Williams told the Guardian. 'The second he was in front of me,' she recounted to CNN in 2024, 'he pulled me into him, and his hands were just on me and didn't come off. And then the hands started moving, and they were on the, you know, on the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up, sort of then, you know – they were just on me the whole time. And I froze. I couldn't understand what was going on.' While Trump groped her, he kept talking to Epstein, and they were 'looking at each other and smiling'. Markus said: 'We haven't spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet.' Still, he added: 'The president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way.' The House oversight committee has subpoenaed Maxwell for a deposition on 11 August, but she has not decided yet whether to cooperate, her lawyer said. While Blanche hurried back to Washington, Trump appeared to have depleted his armory of conspiracy theories, at least for the moment. He tried a novel tack, his most audacious projection yet. 'I'm not focused on conspiracy theories that you are,' he admonished the White House press corps. Then he made a remark that he had never made before, something contrary to his entire character, which underscored the depth of his anxiety. 'Don't,' he said, 'talk about Trump.' But Trump quickly recovered from the tension of his momentary reticence, and on the evening of 26 July, from Scotland, where he was touring his golf courses, he posted that Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton should be prosecuted for their endorsement of Kamala Harris in exchange for payments of millions of dollars. 'They should all be prosecuted!' he demanded. Though a bogus accusation, it accurately reflected Trump's crudely transactional worldview. A few hours later, in the early morning of Sunday 27 July, he posted a Fox News clip of the rightwing talker Mark Levin, writing in capital letters: 'THIS IS A MASSIVE OBAMA SCANDAL!' Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of The Court of History podcast


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Higher US tariffs part of the price Europe was willing to pay for its security and arms for Ukraine
France's prime minister described it as a 'dark day' for the European Union, a 'submission' to U.S. tariff demands. Commentators said EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's handshake with President Donald Trump amounted to capitulation. The trouble is, Europe depends mightily on the United States, and not just for trade. Mirroring Trump, Von der Leyen gushed that the arrangement she endorsed over the weekend to set U.S. tariff levels on most European exports to 15%, which is 10% higher than currently, was 'huge.' Her staff texted reporters insisting that the pact, which starts to enter force on Friday, is the 'biggest trade deal ever.' A month after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ingratiated himself with Trump by referring to him as 'daddy,' the Europeans had again conceded that swallowing the costs and praising an unpredictable president is more palatable than losing America. 'It's not only about the trade. It's about security. It's about Ukraine. It's about current geopolitical volatility. I cannot go into all the details,' EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told reporters Monday. 'I can assure you it was not only about the trade,' he insisted, a day after 'the deal' was sealed in an hour-long meeting once Trump finished playing a round of golf with his son at the course he owns in Scotland. The state of Europe's security dependency Indeed, Europe depends on the U.S. for its security and that security is anything but a game, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine. U.S. allies are convinced that, should he win, President Vladimir Putin is likely to take aim at one of them next. So high are these fears that European countries are buying U.S. weapons to help Ukraine to defend itself. Some are prepared to send their own air defense systems and replace them with U.S. equipment, once it can be delivered. 'We're going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they'll be doing what they want, but I guess it's for the most part working with Ukraine,' Trump said Sunday, sounding ambivalent about America's role in the alliance. The Europeans also are wary about a U.S. troop drawdown, which the Pentagon is expected to announce by October. Around 84,000 U.S. personnel are based in Europe, and they guarantee NATO's deterrent effect against an adversary like Russia. At the same time, Trump is slapping duties on America's own NATO partners, ostensibly due to concerns about U.S. security interests, using Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a logic that seems absurd from across the Atlantic. Weaning Europe off foreign suppliers 'The EU is in a difficult situation because we're very dependent on the U.S. for security,' said Niclas Poitiers at the Bruegel research institution in Brussels. 'Ukraine is a very big part of that, but also generally our defense is underwritten by NATO.' 'I think there was not a big willingness to pick a major fight, which is the one (the EU) might have needed with the U.S.' to better position itself on trade, Poitiers told The Associated Press about key reasons for von der Leyen to accept the tariff demands. Part of the agreement involves a commitment to buy American oil and gas. Over the course of the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fourth year, most of the EU has slashed its dependence on unreliable energy supplies from Russia, but Hungary and Slovakia still have not. 'Purchases of U.S. energy products will diversify our sources of supply and contribute to Europe's energy security. We will replace Russian gas and oil with significant purchases of U.S. LNG, oil and nuclear fuels,' von der Leyen said in Scotland on Sunday. In essence, as Europe slowly weans itself off Russian energy it is also struggling to end its reliance on the United States for its security. The Trump administration has warned its priorities now lie elsewhere, in Asia, the Middle East and on its own borders. That was why European allies agreed at NATO's summit last month to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more on defense over the next decade. Primarily for their own security, but also to keep America among their ranks. The diplomacy involved was not always elegant. 'Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,' Rutte wrote in a private text message to Trump, which the U.S. leader promptly posted on social media. Rutte brushed off questions about potential embarrassment or concern that Trump had aired it, saying: 'I have absolutely no trouble or problem with that because there's nothing in it which had to stay secret.' A price Europe feels it must pay Von der Leyen did not appear obsequious in her meeting with Trump. She often stared at the floor or smiled politely. She did not rebut Trump when he said that only America is sending aid to Gaza. The EU is world's biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinians. With Trump's threat of 30% tariffs hanging over European exports — whether real or brinksmanship is hard to say — and facing the prospect of a full-blown trade dispute while Europe's biggest war in decades rages, 15% may have been a cheap price to pay. 'In terms of the economic impact on the EU economy itself, it will be negative,' Poitiers said. 'But it's not something that is on a comparable magnitude like the energy crisis after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or even COVID.' 'This is a negative shock for our economy, but it is something that's very manageable,' he said. It remains an open question as to how long this entente will last. ___


Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Report: Blackstone executive identified as victim in NYC shooting
The shooting took place at a skyscraper that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone, one of the world's largest investment firms, as well as other tenants. After spraying bullets in the lobby, the gunman took the elevator to the 33rd floor, where real-estate management firm Rudin Management is based, and killed another person before turning the gun on himself. The Rudin family - a New York real estate dynasty - owns the building. 'We lost four souls to another senseless act of gun violence,' said Mayor Eric Adams . The gunman had a 'documented mental health history,' according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, but his motive was still unknown. The rampage happened at the end of the workday in the same part of Manhattan where the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down outside a hotel late last year. Tamura's motive for the massacre remains unclear as of Tuesday morning. Blackstone employees shared messages during the rampage saying there was a shooter in the lobby and warning not to go downstairs, an employee told the WSJ. Some started barricading themselves in their offices and bathrooms. One of those injured is an NFL employee, commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to staff. The employee was reportedly seriously injured but is in stable condition at the hospital. Surveillance video showed the man exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6.30pm carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building. Then, he started firing. Slain NYPD officer Islam (pictured), 36, was an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years, Tisch said at a news conference. He was one of two NYPD officers working paid detail at the building. 'He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm's way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,' Tisch said. 'He died as he lived. A hero.' Tisch said an initial investigation shows the gunman's vehicle traveled across the country, passing through Colorado on July 26, then Nebraska and Iowa on July 27. The car was in Columbia, New Jersey, as recently as 4.24pm Monday. He drove into New York City shortly thereafter, she said.