CNN: Russian-Linked Facebook Ads Targeted Michigan And Wisconsin

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to ... President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Las Vegas to visit with victims and first responders affected by the worst mass shooting in American history. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) MORE LESS
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Several of the Russian-linked Facebook advertisements turned over to congressional investigators this week were targeted to people living in Michigan and Wisconsin, states that were critical to President Donald Trump’s win in 2016, CNN reported late Tuesday.

The advertisements featured polarizing messages, like anti-Muslim attacks. The sources that spoke with CNN said that a large number of the ads appeared in parts of the country that weren’t critical to the election, but some, like the ones in Michigan and Wisconsin, were geared at influencing public opinion.

Trump won both states by less than 1 percent and both were crucial to his Electoral College win.

Facebook has previously said that the 3,000 ads bought by a Russian affiliated troll farm were targeted to specific parts of the country geographically and that at least 10 million Facebook users had likely seen the advertisements.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators are looking at the advertisements as part of its probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign played any part in it.

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Notable Replies

  1. Drip, drip, drip…

    You’re getting wetter by the hour, Oh Donnie Boy…

  2. Paging Jared Kushner…
    “We found that Facebook and digital targeting were the most effective ways to reach the audiences…We brought in Cambridge Analytica. I called some of my friends from Silicon Valley who were some of the best digital marketers in the world. And I asked them how to scale this stuff. Doing it state by state is not that hard."

  3. Amazing how the RU target list seemed to match the Trump target list. Their FB ad buys matched the Trump campaign ad buys.

    HRC’s campaign has documented where the Trump campaign was active. This is not a coincidence folks. The RU FB ad campaign is a tangible example of the conspiracy to violate US election laws as RU provided the Trump campaign ‘a thing of value’ which is specifically proscribed in the Federal Elections Campaign Act.

    I also noticed the Pro Publica story of how Ivanka and Junior were set to be indicted for real estate fraud (involving seller misrepresentations for real estate they were trying to unload) but the head DA, Cyrus Vance Jr (whose father was Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State no less!) told his assistant DAs to back off after he was paid a visit to Marc Kasowitz. He then got some campaign contributions.

    Somehow, I think this story is an attempt to warm us up for what’s coming: that the Trump family was pretty heavily involved in coordinating with the Russians on this ad targeting and other activities. For these crooks, it was just another hustle. This is a situation where everyone seems to know that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians. We’re just looking for a piece of evidence or two.

    My target list for this spoke in the wheel of treason: Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Brad Parscale, Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, along with some intermediaries (people like Boris Epshteyn, Michael Flynn etc.).

  4. Avatar for tsp tsp says:

    He’ll completely melt, soon enough.

    Correction: That can’t come soon enough.

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