The redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the two-year-long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election includes an interesting revelation about the first known incident of Russia attacking our political process.
They did it through Facebook.
A rally of 'Confederate' patriots was promoted on Facebook.
The rally was to take place in Houston in November 2015.
The partly redacted Mueller report released Thursday states that this was the "earliest evidence" that Russians attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The Special Counsel's report says that an Instagram post on an account called 'Stand For Freedom', later linked to online Russian operatives, tried to organize a white supremacist demonstration in Houston.
"Good evening buds!" the post read, according to the Mueller report. "Well I am planning to organize a confederate rally in … Houston on the 14 of November and I want more people to attend."
From the Houston Chronicle:
It is unclear if the protest ever happened.
"(We) identified dozens of U.S. rallies organized by (Russia's private Internet Research Agency)," the report said. "The earlier evidence of a rally was a 'confederate rally' in November 2015. The IRA continued to organize rallies even after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The attendance at rallies varied. Some rallies appear to have drawn few (if any) participants, while others drew hundreds."
The complete screenshot of that Facebook post, provided by the Houston Chronicle, is below.
It is important to remember that Facebook has admitted that many such posts were paid for in rubles by accounts later revealed to effectively be front entities for Russia's military interests abroad.
Facebook was a primary vector for the Russian attack on America. And they were paid for some of it in rubles, by their own admission.
Boggles the mind.
