Facebook gave special counsel Robert Mueller, who is overseeing the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, records of Russian ad purchases on the website and copies of the ads, several outlets reported Sunday.
Reuters first reported that Facebook had given Mueller data on the ads last week, and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Facebook turned over copies of the ads and details about how they were targeted and the accounts that purchased them.
CNN on Sunday confirmed, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter, that Facebook gave Mueller copies of the ads and “related information.”
Both CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook did not give the same information to congressional committees also investigating Russian interference, and that Facebook’s policy states that it will only turn over the “stored contents” of an account in response to a search warrant.
In a statement to CNN, Facebook said it was giving Mueller information “including ads and related account information.”
Democracy dies with Facebook.
Thanks Zuckerberg.
I am fine with all of this, and reasonably certain I read a story yesterday about someone in Congress (Grassley?) complaining. The first job of the Congress of the United States is to pass legislation, not conduct investigations. Do your damned job and let Director Mueller do his! I am old enough to remember when Congressional investigations invalidated the work of Lawrence Walsh, the Special Prosecutor in the Iran-Contra affair. Coincidence? I don’t think so…
I sure hope Mueller has seen this BBC News video that tours the physical site of Trump’s digital campaign apparatus and illuminates how Facebook catered to it, led by the mercenary who served as The Mouth of Sauron, i.e., ghost-wrote Trump’s FB posts.
This is interesting. I wonder if they have a specific lead, or are just being thorough. If just thorough, seems likely they’re lacking any real incriminating evidence, or else why bother with this.
On its own hard to see how anything coming from this could be anything but phenomenally flimsy evidence of any wrongdoing by trump. At best it might show some high level coordination, but nothing that could possibly stand up to scrutiny as no way to prove they weren’t simply following trump’s public statements (in the same way super PACs operate). But then again, maybe Mueller is just looking at any and all Russian influence in the election, and not specifically focusing on trump.
Now we know why 45 unleashed a twatterstorm this morning.