Facebook handed Russia-linked ads over to Mueller under search warrant

[DonViejo]

Source: CNN




by Dylan Byers @CNNMoney
September 16, 2017: 6:12 AM ET

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are now in possession of Russian-linked ads run on Facebook during the presidential election, after they obtained a search warrant for the information.

Facebook gave Mueller and his team copies of ads and related information it discovered on its site linked to a Russian troll farm, as well as detailed information about the accounts that bought the ads and the way the ads were targeted at American Facebook users, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

The disclosure, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may give Mueller's office a fuller picture of who was behind the ad buys and how the ads may have influenced voter sentiment during the 2016 election.

Facebook did not give copies of the ads to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees when it met with them last week on the grounds that doing so would violate their privacy policy, sources with knowledge of the briefings said. Facebook's policy states that, in accordance with the federal Stored Communications Act, it can only turn over the stored contents of an account in response to a search warrant.

"We continue to work with the appropriate investigative authorities," Facebook said in a statement to CNN.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/media/facebook-mueller-ads/index.html

[BigmanPigman]

1. What about Twitter, You Tube and Cambridge Analytical?

They all have dirty money. This earlier post from DU needs to be broadcast from the highest mountains...if you aren'the convinced of major crimes being committed you didn'the pay attention.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029595857

[mpcamb]

3. Good, good, good.

And a search warrrent to boot.

Hang 'em high!

[neohippie]

4. Follow the Russian mob money, it's all over our country

The Russians have been dumping money into our country for a long time. It's not that hard to follow the money and it's influence not only in our politics but into silicon valley and other places like the real estate markets and backing Trump partnerships and so on.

There are many key players tied to the Trump Russia investigations involved. All of these Russian oligarchs and the sources of the money that they are using need to be tracked down.

Here are links to some examples I am talking about, See the article below "Know your Russian Oligarchs"


http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/russian-oligarchs-2013-4/

Now lets see what they've been up to with their money much of it I suspect was laundered and funneled through banks like the Cyprus Bank



http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/national-govt--politics/yachts-trump-financial-backer-russian-oligarch-seen-close-together/gI074W3JLqvEYrQ0hm9zlN/

Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev last week disavowed any contact with President Donald Trump.

But speculation again was stoked when his state-of-the-art yacht Anna sat anchored in the British Virgin Islands on Friday night and another equally resplendent luxury liner, the Sea Owl, sidled up, according to a website that tracks the movement of yachts.

The owner of the dark-hulled yacht? President Donald Trump’s biggest financial supporter and Breitbart News moneyman, Robert Mercer.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/17/1644558/-Confirmed-Rybolovlev-s-Jet-Yacht-were-in-Dubrovnik-the-same-time-as-Ivanka-and-Jarred-Kushner

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/jared-kushner-flew-to-aspen-same-day-as-one-of-putins-closest-confidants-whose-wife-is-pals-with-ivanka/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/business/billionaires-yachts-jets-tracking.html?mcubz=0


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency

And then all of this Russian Facebook news is this just a coincidence?


https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/3286-facebook-are-you-interfacing-with-the-russian-mafia--kgb


https://www.wired.com/2011/10/mf_milner/

http://gawker.com/5537538/the-humiliation-of-a-creepy-russian-sugar-daddy


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/yuri-milner-russian-billionaire-behind-push-to-find-aliens/6635566


https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

http://fortune.com/2017/05/17/donald-trump-russia-2/


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/trump-financial-ties-russia-money-laundering-banks-oligarchs-manafort/


https://wearethisamericancarnage.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/the-matryoshka/


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/27/1647610/-99-coincidences-connecting-Trump-and-Putin


Russian money into the GOP is nothing new

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/exhaustive-history-donald-trump-russia-scandal-timeline/


http://thegopwatchdog.com/the-untold-story-of-jack-abramoffs-russia-collusion/


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001480.html

http://www.bluedotdaily.com/yes-trumps-russian-scandal-is-real-it-all-traces-back-to-one-guy/

[FakeNoose]

5. This illustrates why the investigation takes so long

Mueller has so many leads he has to follow up. The GOP/Russia crimes are monumental and prolific.

I'm not sure how much time he should spend going after the Russians though. Let's concerntrate on the Americans who were complicit - that's taking long enough. We need to get them first.

[Calista241]

6. I don't see how they can easily connect this to Trump.

Much less ascribe any criminal planning or "collusion" to him.

Unless they have emails or recordings saying "put your fake Hillary hate ads here." And even then, is that criminal activity? The only criminal act I can find so far is the actual hacking of Podesta's and others email accounts.

So yes, we may learn how Facebook fucked us and how social media fake news cost us the election, but that's all.

And we may also learn that adversarial foreign governments know how to motivate American voters better than our own fucking political parties.

[meadowlander]

8. Taking campaign contributions from a foreign country is illegal.

Kushner (Trump's son in law) was heading up all things digital for the Trump campaign including targeting of ads to particular demographics. No way Trump wasn't aware of what was going on when he even writes his own son's excuse notes for meeting with the Russians.

If they have proof of Kushner (or Flynn or anyone else) providing information to the Russians which helped them to target the ads to particular markets, then they have proof of the campaign colluding with the Russians to accept an illegal campaign contribution (which can be defined broadly as any kind of assistance, not just monetary).

And they can nail Trump on the cover-up because he is obviously obstructing justice (by firing Comey and talking to the heads of the other intelligence agencies to try and get them to drop the investigation).

[Calista241]

9. The problem is anyone who knows anything about our elections

would know where and what demographics to target in a Hillary / Trump matchup. I'm guessing they wanted to both suppress Dem turnout, and boost Repub turnout. That's something you and I, and any consultant anywhere, would know.

I think we could possibly make a case that firing Comey was obstruction, but it depends on those conversations Trump had at the time. Comey testified before Congress that he told Trump he wasn't personally under investigation. Trump can say he fired Comey because Comey wouldn't say publicly what he was telling Trump privately. And the same applies to Trump's conversations with all the other intelligence agency heads.

Trump went about firing Comey in the most inept, stupid way possible, and with no actual plan of what to say when someone asked him about it. But making an obstruction case simply on the firing of Comey will be a very tough sell.

People here counting on Mueller to bail the country out here in the next month or so are guilty of wishful thinking. This investigation is going to take years. If i had to bet money, I'd bet that Flynn gets charged and convicted, but has his sentence commuted. I bet Manafort skates. Anything else is too early to predict.

[meadowlander]

12. The point is that the Russians didn't know how to target it

according to 17 intelligence agencies. Someone in the US helped them find which demographics and districts to target.

And Kushner met repeatedly with the Russians and then lied about it on his security clearance. And then he was busted trying to set up a secret back channel using Russian communication systems.

And Flynn and Sessions also lied about meetings with the Russians on their security clearance forms.

They don't need to make the obstruction case just on the Comey firing - there is also Trump trying to get Admiral Rodgers and Dan Coats to lean on Comey. And Trump writing that press statement for his son lying about a meeting with Russians. And Trump asking Comey for his loyalty and whether or not he can "let the Russia thing go". And that's not even getting into all the fuckery around Devin Nunes, and the White House asking the chairs of the investigatory committee in the Senate and House to call reporters and say "there's nothing there" about the investigation. And the White House refusing to turn over documents relevant to the investigation like the documentation around Mike Flynn's vetting process.

[WhiteTara]

7. Soon Google may be roped into the arena

of treason...willing? duped?

[Calista241]

10. Do we want Facebook, Google or whoever else to be the thought police

and applying their own corporate judgements to what ads are valid, and can be posted or not?

Do we want companies to start asking how people / organizations are getting money to pay for whatever advertising they're purchasing? Do we expect them to ask about corporate beliefs? Do we expect them to check and run audits?

Facebook and Google likely have a customer name, company name, billing address, and record of sale for these advertisements, and that's probably it. And those organizations probably didn't use a Russian billing address or phone number when placing those orders. Starting a company, or lobbying organization, based here in the US, is super simple and can take just minutes.

Facebook and Google processed billions of dollars in orders in 2016. Whoever is auditing this on Mueller's team has at least a years worth of work ahead of them.

[meadowlander]

11. They are a form of media, and should have to comply with the same rules as any other media.

MSNBC would not be allowed to accept a major ad buy for political commercials in rubles (as Mark Warner contends Facebook did without blinking an eye). Facebook should not be allowed to violate campaign finance laws just because their technology is newer.

Every other company on earth is expected to perform due diligence. There are laws that forbid American companies from doing business with terrorists, corrupt governments and other sponsors of political violence (e.g. the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). This isn't "the thought police" - there is significant precedent for prosecuting companies that make a profit by doing business with countries that have sanctions against them, for example.

Likewise, Facebook and Twitter already pull "objectionable" content. Facebook pulls content on things like breastfeeding support groups for showing topless women.

"Do we want companies to start asking how people / organizations are getting money to pay for whatever advertising they're purchasing?" Yes. Do you want al Qaeda, ISIS or the KKK recruiting openly on Twitter?