Narrative
II. RUSSIAN" ACTIVE MEASURES'' SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
The first form of Russian election influence came principally from the Internet Research Agency, LLC( IRA), a Russian organization funded by Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and companies he controlled, including Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering( collectively" Concord''). The IRA conducted social media operations targeted at large U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political system. These operations constituted" active measures''( aKTMBHbie Meporrprumu1), a term that typically refers to operations conducted by Russian security services aimed at influencing the course of international affairs.
The IRA and its employees began operations targeting the United States as early as 2014. Using fictitious U.S. personas, IRA employees operated social media accounts and group pages designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and accounts, which addressed divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists. Over time, these social media accounts became a means to reach large U.S. audiences. IRA employees travelled to the United States in mid-2014 on an intelligence-gathering mission to obtain information and photographs for use in their social media posts.
IRA employees posted derogatory information about a number of candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. By early to mid-2016, IRA operations included supporting the Trump Campaign and disparaging candidate Hillary Clinton. The IRA made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Some IRA employees, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated electronically with individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities, including the staging of political rallies. The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA 's interference operation.
By the end of the 2016 U.S. election, the IRA had the ability to reach millions of U.S. persons through their social media accounts. Multiple IRA-controlled Facebook groups and Instagram accounts had hundreds of thousands of U.S. participants. IRA-controlled accounts separately had tens of thousands of followers, including multiple U.S. political figures who IRA-created content. In November 2017, a Facebook representative testified that Facebook had identified 470 IRA-controlled Facebook accounts that collectively made 80,000 posts between January 2015 and August 2017. Facebook estimated the IRA reached as many as 126 million persons through its Face book accounts. In January 2018, announced that it had identified 3,814 IRA-controlled accounts and notified approximately 1.4 million people believed may have been in contact with an IRA-controlled account.
A. Structure of the Internet Research Agency
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 9[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
The organization quickly grew.[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 11[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] Two individuals headed the IRA'' s management; its general director, Mikhail Bystrov, and it 's executive director, Mikhail Burchik.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] As early as the spring of 2014, the IRA began to hide its funding and activities.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] THE IRA 's U.S. operations are part of a largesr set of interlocking operation known as" Project Lakhta,''[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
B. Funding and Oversight from Concord and Prigozhin
Until at least February 2018, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and two Concord companies funded the IRA. Prigozhin is a wealthy Russian businessman who served as the head of Concord.[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] Prigozhin was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2016,[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 20[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] Numerous media sources have reported on Prigozhin 's ties to Putin, and the two have appeared together in public photographs.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
IRA employees were ware that Prigozhin was involved in the IRA 's U.S. operations,[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] May 2016, IRA employees, claiming to be U.S. social activists and administrators of Facebook groups, recruited U.S. persons to hold signs( including one in front of the White House) that read" Happy 55th Birthda Dear Boss,'' as an homage to Prigozhin whose 55th birthday was on June 1, 2016.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
C. The IRA Targets U.S. Elections 1. The IRA Ramps Up U.S. Operations As Early As 2014 The IRA 's U.S. operations sought to influence public opinion though online media and forums. By the spring of 2014, the IRA began to consolidate U.S. operations within a single general department, known internally as the" Translator''( переводчик) department.[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] IRA subdivided the Translator Department into different responsibilities, ranging from operations on different social media platforms to analytics to graphics and IT.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering missions. In June 2014, four IRA employees applied to the U.S. Department of State to enter the United States, while lying about the purpose of their trip and claiming to be four friends who had met at a party. Ultimately, two IRA employees-Anna Bogacheva and Aleksandra Krylova -received visas and entered the United States on June 4, 2014. Prior to traveling, Krylova and Bogacheva complied itineraries and instructions for the trip.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
2. U.S. Operations Through IRA-Controlled Social Media Accounts
Dozens of IRA employees were responsible for operating accounts and personas on different U.S. social media platforms. The IRA referred to employees assigned to operate the social media accounts as" specialists.'' Starting as early as 2014, the IRA ' s U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing on Facebook, YouTube, and . The IRA later added specialists who operated on Tumblr and Instagram accounts.
Initially, the IRA created social media accounts that pretended to be the personal accounts of U.S. persons. By early 2015, the IRA began to create larger social media groups or public social media pages that claimed( falsely) to be affiliated with U.S. political and grassroots organizations. In certain cases, the IRA created accounts that mimicked real U.S. organizations. For example, one IRA-controlled account, @TEN_ GOP, purported to be connected to the Tennessee Republican Party .46 More commonly, the IRA created accounts in the names of fictitious U.S. organizations and grassroots groups and used these accounts to pose as antiimmigration groups, Tea Party activists, Black Lives Matter protestors, and other U.S. social and political activists.
The IRA closely monitored the activity of its social media accounts.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
By February 2016, internal IRA documents referred to support the Trump Campaign and opposition to candidate Clinton. For example,[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] directions to IRA operators[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]" Main idea; Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary[ Clinton] and the rest( except sanders and Trump-- we support them).''
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] The focus on the U.S. presidential campaign continued throughout 2016. In[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 2016 internal[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] reviewing the IRA-controlled Facebook group" Secured Borders,'' the author criticized the" lower number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton'' and reminded the Facebook specialist" it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton.''
3. U.S. Operations Through Facebook
Many IRA operations used Facebook accounts created and operated by its specialists.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] IRA Facebook groups active during the 2016 campaign covered a range of political issues and included purported conservative groups( with names such as" Being Patriotic,''" Stop All Immigrants,''" Secured Borders,'' and" Tea Party News''), purported Black social justice groups(" Black Matters,''" Blacktivist,'' and" Do n't Shoot Us''), LGBTQ groups(" LGBT United''), and religious groups(" United Muslims of America'').
Throughout 2016, IRA accounts published an increasing number of materials supporting the Trump Campaign and opposing the Clinton Campaign. For example, on May 31, 2016, the operational account" Matt Skiber'' began to privately message dozens of pro-Trump Facebook groups asking them to help plan a" pro-Trump rally near Trump Tower.''
To reach larger U.S. audiences, the IRA purchased advertisements from Facebook that promoted the IRA groups on the newsfeeds of U.S. audience members. According to Facebook, the IRA purchased over 3,500 advertisements, and the expenditures totaled approximately$ 100,000.
During the U.S. presidential campaign, many IRA-purchased advertisements explicitly supported or opposed a presidential candidate or promoted U.S. rallies organized by the IRA( discussed below). As early as March 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements that overtly opposed the Clinton Campaign. For example, on March 18, 2016, the IRA purchased an advertisement depicting candidate Clinton and a caption that read in part," If one day God lets this liar enter the White House as a president- that day would be a real national tragedy.'' Similarly, on April 6, 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements for its account" Black Matters'' calling for a" flashmob'' of U.S. persons to" take a photo with #HillaryClintonForPrison2016 or #nohillary2016.'' IRA-purchased advertisements featuring Clinton were, with very few exceptions, negative.
IRA-purchased advertisements referencing candidate Trump largely supported his campaign. The first known IRA advertisement explicitly endorsing the Trump Campaign was purchased on April 19, 2016. The IRA bought an advertisement for its Instagram account" Tea Party News'' asking U.S. persons to help them" make a patriotic team of young Trump supporters'' by uploading photos with the hashtag'' #KIDS4TRUMP." 60 In subsequent months, the IRA purchased dozens of advertisements supporting the Trump Campaign, predominantly through the Facebook groups" Being Patriotic,''" Stop All Invaders,'' and" Secured Borders.''
Collectively, the IRA 's social media accounts reached tens of millions of U.S. persons. Individual IRA social media accounts attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. For example, at the time they were deactivated by Facebook in mid-2017, the IRA 's" United Muslims of America'' Facebook group had over 300,000 followers, the" Do n't Shoot Us'' Facebook group had over 250,000 followers, the" Being Patriotic'' Facebook group had over 200,000 followers, and the" Secured Borders'' Facebook group had over 130,000 followers .61 According to Facebook, in total the IRA-controlled accounts made over 80,000 posts before their deactivation in August 2017, and these posts reached at least 29 million U.S persons and" may have reached an estimated 126 million people." 62 4. U.S. Operations Through
A number of IRA employees assigned to the Translator Department served as specialists.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
The IRA 's operations involved two strategies. First, IRA specilaists operated certain accounts to creates individual U.S. personas,[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] Separately, the IRA operated a network of automated accounts( commonly referred to as a bot network) that enabled the IRA to amplify existing content on .
a. Individualized Accounts
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] The IRA operated individualized accounts similar to the operation of its Facebook accounts, by continuously posting original content to the accounts while also communicating with users directly( through public or 's private messaging).
The IRA used many of these accounts to attempt to influence U.S. audiences on the election. Individualized accounts used to influence the U.S. presidential election included @TEN_ GOP( described above); @jenn _ abrams( claiming to be a Virginian Trump supporter with 70,000 followers); @Pamela_Moore13( claiming to be a Texan Trump supporter with 70,000 followers); and @America: _ 1st _( an anti-immigration persona with 24,000 followers). In May 2016, the IRA created the account @march_for_trump, which promoted IRA-organized rallies in support of the Trump Campaign( described below).
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
Using these accounts and others, the IRA provoked reactions from users and the media. Multiple IRA-posted gained popularity. U.S. media outlets also quoted from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real U.S. persons. Similarly, numerous high profile U.S. persons, including former Ambassador Michael McFaul, Roger Stone, Sean Hannity and Michael Flynn Jr., or responded to posted to these IRA-controlled accounts. Multiple individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign also promoted IRA ( discussed below).
b. IRA Botnet Activities
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
In January 2018, publicly identified 3,814 accounts associated with the IRA .79 According to , in the ten weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, these accounts posted approximately 175,993 ," approximately 8.4 % of which were election-related.'' also announced that it had notified approximately 1.4 million people who believed may have been in contact with an IRA-controlled account.
5. U.S. Operations Involving Political Rallies
The IRA organized and promoted political rallies inside the United States while posing as U.S. grassroots activists. First, the IRA used one of its preexisting social media personas( Facebook groups and accounts, for example) to announce and promote the event. The IRA then sent a large number of direct messages to followers of its social media account asking them to attend the event. From those who responded with interest in attending, the IRA then sought a U.S. person to serve as the event 's coordinator. In most cases, the IRA account operator would tell the U.S. person that they personally could not attend the event due to some preexisting conflict or because they were somewhere else in the United States. The IRA then further promoted the event by contacting U.S. media about the event and directing them to speak with the coordinator. After the event, the IRA posted videos and photographs of the event to the IRA 's social media accounts.
The Office identified dozens of U.S. rallies organized by the IRA. The earliest evidence of a rally was a" confederate rally'' in November 2015. The IRA continued to organize rallies even after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The attendance at rallies varied. Some rallies appear to have drawn few( if any) participants, while others drew hundreds. The reach and success of these rallies was closely monitored while others drew hundreds[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
From June 2016 until the end of the presidential campaign, almost all of the U.S. rallies organized by the IRA focused on the U.S. election, often promoting the Trump Campaign and opposing the Clinton Campaign. Pro-Trump rallies included three in New ump rallies in Florida in August 2016; and a series of pro-Trump rallies in October 2016 in Pennsylvania. The Florida rallies drew the attention of the Trump Campaign, which MINERS FOR TRUMP posted about the Miami rally on candidate Trump 's Facebook( as discussed below).
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] 6. Targeting and Recruitment of U.S. Persons
As early as 2014, the IRA instructed its employees to target U.S. persons who could be used to advance its operational goals. Initially, recruitment focused on U.S. persons who could amplify the content posted by the IRA.
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
IRA employees frequently used[ REDACTED-INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUE] , Facebook, and Instagram to contact and recruit U.S. persons who followed the group. The IRA recruited U.S. persons from across the political spectrum. For example, the IRA targeted the family of[ REDACTED-PERSONAL PRIVACY] and a number of black social justice activists while posing as a grassroots group called" Black Matters US.'' In February 2017, the persona" Black Fist''( purporting to want to teach African-Americans to protect themselves when contacted by law enforcement) hired a self-defense instructor in New York to offer classes by Black Fist. The IRA also recruited moderators of conservative social media groups to promote IRA-generated content, as well as recruited individuals to perform political acts( such as walking around New York City dressed up as Santa Claus with a Trump mask).
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER]
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER] as the IRA 's online audience became larger, the IRA tracked U.S. persons with whom they communicated and had successfully tasked with tasks ranging from organizing rallies to taking pictures with certain political messages).
[ REDACTED-HARM TO ONGOING MATTER][ REDACTED-PERSONAL PRIVACY] 7. Interactions and Contacts with the Trump Campaign
The investigation identified two different forms of connections between the IRA and members of the Trump Campaign.( The investigation identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton Campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promoted-typically by linking, , or similar methods of reposting pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by the IRA through IRA-controlled social media accounts. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA employees represented themselves as U.S. persons to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign in an effort to seek assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside the United States.
a. Trump Campaign Promotion of IRA Political Materials
Among the U.S." leaders of public opinion'' targeted by the IRA were various members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign. In total, Trump Campaign affiliates promoted dozens of , posts, and other political content created by the IRA.
Posts from the IRA-controlled account @TEN_GOP were cited or by multiple Trump Campaign officials and surrogates, including Donald J. Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Michael T. Flynn. These posts included allegations of voter fraud, as well as allegations that Secretary Clinton had mishandled classified information.
A November 7, 2016 post from the IRA-controlled account @Pamela_ Moore 13 was by Donald J. Trump Jr..
On September 19, 2017, President Trump 's personal.. account @realDonaldTrump responded to a from the IRA-controlled account @ l0_gop( the backup account of @TEN_ GOP, which had already been deactivated by ). The read:" We love you, Mr. President! ''
IRA employees monitored the reaction of the Trump Campaign and, later, Trump Administration officials to their . For example, on August 23, 2016, the IRA controlled persona" Matt Skiber'' Facebook account sent a message to a U.S. Tea Party activist, writing that" Mr. Trump posted about our event in Miami! This is great! '' The IRA employee included a screenshot of candidate Trump 's Facebook account, which included a post about the Screenshot of Trump Facebook August 20, 2016 political rallies organized by the IRA. Account( from Matt Skibe,)
b. Contact with Trump Campaign Officials in Connection to Rallies
Starting in June 2016, the IRA contacted different U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump Campaign in an effort to coordinate pro-Trump IRA-organized rallies inside the United States. In all cases, the IRA contacted the Campaign while claiming to be U.S. political activists working on behalf of a conservative grassroots organization. The IRA 's contacts included requests for signs and other materials to use at rallies, as well as requests to promote the rallies and help coordinate Iogistics. While certain campaign volunteers agreed to provide the requested support( for example, agreeing to set aside a number of signs), the investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.
In sum, the investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through the" active measures'' social media campaign carried out by the IRA, an organization funded by Prigozhin and companies that he controlled. As explained further in Volume I, Section V.A, infra, the Office concluded( and a grand jury has alleged) that Prigozhin, his companies, and IRA employees violated U.S. law through these operations, principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of federal agencies charged with regulating foreign influence in U.S. elections.