About a week after Facebook admitted in front of the Congress that it had, indeed, sold ads to a Russian ad company pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, the company reportedly gave up everything it had on that transaction to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s ties with Russia.
Ever since Trump was elected into office, rumors have been swirling about his relation to the Russians, with many sources indicating it was Vladimir Putin’s well-oiled machine that helped elect Trump, including by hacking the DNC and negatively impacting Hilary Clinton’s chances at the office.
News about Facebook handing over the ads it sold to the Russian company was reported by the Wall Street Journal, although it was later revealed that this wasn’t a move Facebook did on its own, but actually came as a reaction to a warrant issued at the request of Robert Mueller.
Now, Mueller will investigate the information into Russia’s meddling into the 2016 presidential election and add these ads to the file. The ads in question targeted American citizens over Facebook, and covered many topics, including gun rights and immigration, both topics that Trump has talked about extensively during his campaign. Some of the ads, it seems, directly mentioned Trump and Clinton.
The news reveals quite a bit about the investigation Mueller is running. If he demanded to see these ads, it means that he has a pretty clear view on how and if Russia had a hand on the 2016 US elections. Furthermore, he must have had strong arguments in order to convince a judge to sign that warrant Facebook got served with.
For many months now, Russia’s involvement in the most recent elections has been discussed. While Trump has denied over and over that he has colluded with the Russians, his son has provided proof that he’s met with Russians who handed over dirt on Clinton. In other instances, it was revealed that Russia’s hackers had cracked open the electoral system in numerous states, ahead of the main event, while hacker group Fancy Bear has been tied to the hack of the Democratic National Committee. The list seems to be growing longer by the day and it will be interesting to see what Mueller concludes once this investigation is over.
The Cyber-Secret Futurist 