8 Russian Fake News Independent UK

Russia targeted key states with an -Clinton fake news, Trump-Russia hearings chairman reveals
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/russian-trolls-hilary-clinton-fake-news-election-democrat-mark-warner-intelligence-committee-a7657641.html
independent.co.uk
Russia targeted key states with anti-

Clinton fake news, Trump-Russia
hearings chairman reveals
Rachel Roberts
The Kremlin paid an army of more than 1,000 people to create fake
anti-Hillary Clinton news stories targeting key swing states, the
leading Democrat on the committee looking into alleged Russian
interference in the US election has said.
Senator Mark Warner, the Democrat ranking member, and

chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Republican Senator
Richard Burr, appeared together at a press conference to give an
update on the investigation ahead of the first witnesses appearing
today.
Mr Warner said: “We know about the hacking, and selective leaks,
but what really concerns me as a former tech guy is at least some
reports – and we’ve got to get to the bottom of this – that there
were upwards of a thousand internet trolls working out of a facility
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Russia targeted key states with an -Clinton fake news, Trump-Russia hearings chairman reveals about:reader?url=h ps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-poli cs/russian-tr...
in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers which are then

called botnets, that can then generate news down to specific areas.
“It’s been reported to me, and we’ve got to find this out, whether
they were able to affect specific areas in Wisconsin, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, where you would not have been receiving off of
whoever your vendor might have been, Trump versus Clinton,
during the waning days of the election, but instead, ‘Clinton is sick’,
or ‘Clinton is taking money from whoever for some source’ … fake
news.
“An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hi-jack the most

critical democratic process, the election of a President, and in that
process, decided to favour one candidate over another.”
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The key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which Mr

Warner named all fell narrowly - and unexpectedly - to
Donald Trump.
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The Senate Committee will examine whether the Trump campaign

co-ordinated with the Russians to hire the army of trolls.
Mr Warner and Mr Burr were keen to stress they were unified in the
investigation, in spite of reported in-fighting along political lines.
Mr Burr said he did not want to “take snapshots” of where the

investigation stood but hinted the committee had spoken to
Ret Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Mr Trump’s former Director
of National Intelligence who stepped down from his post after ties to
foreign governments were revealed.
A parallel investigation is running in the lower House of

Representatives, but this has been marred by calls for chairman
Devin Nunes to step down following allegations he is co-operating
with the White House.
A CBS poll revealed half of Americans now believe the Russians
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interfered with the election to help Mr Trump, while 10 per cent

believe there was Russian interference but that it was not
specifically designed to benefit the tycoon.
Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan, said the US had a

responsibility to the rest of the world to get to the bottom of the
alleged Russian interference.
“They’re doing it to other countries right now," he said.
"We all knew this before the election, we all knew Russia was trying
to meddle with our election, and we already know right now they’re
trying to do it with other countries.”
Seven staffers are probing Mr Trump’s alleged links to Russia and

said his son-in-law Jared Kushner had agreed to be interviewed by
the Senate committee, although it is not known if he will appear
under oath or on camera.
Journalist Adam Chen, now a staff writer at the New Yorker but a
freelancer when he investigated alleged interference in the US
election, claimed in a podcast with Longform that a large number
of Russian trolls were now churning out support for Mr Trump
“I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I

check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into
conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what's
going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff," he
said.
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A total of 20 individuals have been asked to appear before the

committee members for private interviews, but no names apart from
Mr Kushner’s were confirmed during the press conference.
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Russia targeted key states with an -Clinton fake news, Trump-Russia hearings chairman reveals

Russia targeted key states with anti-

Senator Mark Warner, the Democrat ranking member, and

in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers which are then

“An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hi-jack the most

The key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which Mr

The Senate Committee will examine whether the Trump campaign

Mr Burr said he did not want to “take snapshots” of where the

A parallel investigation is running in the lower House of

A CBS poll revealed half of Americans now believe the Russians

interfered with the election to help Mr Trump, while 10 per cent

Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan, said the US had a

“They’re doing it to other countries right now," he said.

Seven staffers are probing Mr Trump’s alleged links to Russia and

“I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I

A total of 20 individuals have been asked to appear before the

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