The Warrant Mueller Obtained That Trump Should Be Worried About
According to new reports, FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller obtained a search warrant for records of the “inauthentic” accounts Facebook shut down earlier this month.
That means he’s targeting accounts that purchased fake ads during the 2016 election.
The warrant was first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal on Friday night and the news was later confirmed by CNN.
Facebook informed Congress last week that it had identified 3,000 ads that ran between June 2015 and May 2017 that were linked to fake accounts. Those accounts, in turn, were linked to the pro-Kremlin troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.
But, it wouldn’t give copies of the ads to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees last week since it would violate their privacy policy.
“This is big news — and potentially bad news for the Russian election interference ‘deniers,'” said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent.
By getting a warrant, it means that a judge believes a crime has been committed – and the prosecutor provided evidence to show there was a crime.
CNN reported, “Facebook is still not sure whether pro-Kremlin groups may have made other ad buys intended to influence American politics that it simply hasn’t discovered yet.”
So there could more more ads on social media now that are paid for by the Russian government.