Mysterious Twitter account appears to be involved in leak of Conyers sexual harassment settlement

[MelissaB]

Mysterious Twitter account appears to be involved in leak of Conyers’ sexual harassment settlement

The account mimicked the behavior of known Russian trolls.

One of the most popular fake Twitter accounts run out of Russia, going by @TEN_GOP, long purported to be the unofficial representative of the Tennessee Republican Party. After fooling everyone from far-right conspiracy theorists like Jack Posobiec to Glenn Greenwald to the sitting president of the United States, Twitter shut down the account as part of its rollback of fraudulent Russian troll feeds.

Now, though, it appears that the account is back. Or it was, at least, until ThinkProgress sent questions to both the account and Twitter alike.

The new account, which went live after Twitter removed thousands of Russian accounts — and which places a zero instead of an “O” in the “GOP” in the account’s name — claimed to be the “Unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans,” and featured a prominent photo of Donald Trump as its cover photo. It also provided an email account to allow followers to “[s]ecurely send tips.”

The account didn’t respond to questions from ThinkProgress, but, when contacted, proceeded to block this reporter on Twitter, and place its account on private. Shortly thereafter, the account appeared to remove all identifying information, although it remained up. The account was then removed in its entirety on Tuesday afternoon.

More: https://thinkprogress.org/tennessee-republican-fake-account-8aedaa7592f6/

I saw @TEN_GOP account this morning and can verify the things posted here, including this one. -Melissa

One of the account’s recent tweets, two days before the BuzzFeed story broke, claimed that the account had “just spoken with the family of one of the victims who was paid by the Congressional slush fund,” and that multiple minors had been involved in related scandals.

[MelissaB]

1. Yes, I think Russians are working w/ the GOP.

Look at how this played out and how is involved (Mike Cernovich).

I'm NOT saying Conyers is innocent. I'm saying I think these 2 players (Russia & some in GOP) worked together. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize.

[anneboleyn]

10. I think you're right. Ffs, Trump talked to Pooty for over an hour today. Then he declared Roy Moore

should be elected by the people of Alabama. Doesn't it seem weird how the Russia stuff coincides exactly with anti-democrat stuff leaking? (As you said Conyers guilt is another issue but he won't be the only one whose victim(S) got paid from that secret account)

[octoberlib]

2. Molly McKew caught it.

Link to tweet

[MelissaB]

4. Molly is good. I need to follow her.

[MelissaB]

3. From the Way Back Machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20171121174842/twitter.com/TEN_G0P

[octoberlib]

7. Cernovich got him back on Twitter. Interesting.

[octoberlib]

5. And now I'm wondering if the documents were obtained through an illegal hack.

It would explain how Cernovich got his hands on them.

[woodsprite]

6. That's probably how they plan to get the Dems to sign onto passing the "King Don" tax bill.

We need the Dems to champion a Robin Hood version.

We know the russians have dirt on both sides, and what they don't have, they'll make up, all for Trump & Co's benefit.

[leftynyc]

8. This was the pig rapist assange's doing

I would bet my mortgage on it.

[librechik]

9. probably. The Russians must have compromat on everybody.

they're going down. except for Trump