Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election has obtained a warrant to investigate Facebook’s role in spreading Russian misinformation to targeted U.S. regions.
The move reportedly opens a whole new avenue of speculation about what the investigation is finding and where it is leading, said Business Insider on Saturday.
“This is big news,” said former FBI counterintelligence agent Asha Rangappa, “and potentially bad news for the Russian election interference ‘deniers.’”
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told BI’s Natasha Bertrand that the warrant “may be the biggest news in the case since the Manafort raid” — referring to the pre-dawn FBI raid on the home of former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Mueller has obtained a search warrant to investigate “inauthentic” Facebook accounts that are believed to have been operated by Russian-sponsored “troll farms” in and around the former Soviet Union. Rangappa said this reveals two key pieces of information.
One is that the investigation was able to convince a judge that there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed. Secondly, the prosecutor must show that the information sought by the investigation will provide evidence of the crime.
“The key here, though, is that Mueller clearly already has enough information on these accounts — and their link to a potential crime to justify forcing [Facebook] to give up the info,” Rangappa said. “That means that he has uncovered a great deal of evidence through other avenues of Russian election interference.”
Mariotti said that the Facebook warrant “means that Mueller has concluded that specific foreign individuals committed a crime by making a ‘contribution’ in connection with an election.”
The prosecutor continued, “It also means that he has evidence of that crime that convinced a federal magistrate judge of two things: first, that there was good reason to believe that the foreign individual committed the crime. Second, that evidence of the crime existed on Facebook.”
Mark Zuckerberg full of ISH. He was greedy. He wanted that money from the Russians and didn’t give a FUCK.
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/910950399812755456
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/910955164902858754
Twitter thread about Bobby Three Sticks, Facebook and what he got:
Renato MariottiVerified account @renato_mariotti
THREAD: Why news that Mueller obtained a search warrant for Facebook content may be the biggest news in the case since the Manafort raid.
6:28 AM – 16 Sep 2017
1/ Last night, the @WSJ reported that Mueller obtained info from Facebook via search warrant:
2/ The @WSJ talks about some of the info Mueller obtained (see below). Mueller could not obtain *content* of an account without a warrant.
3/ I was initially wary about discussing implications of this story because I worried @WSJ may have presumed a warrant that didn’t exist.
4/ But @CNN has confirmed that Mueller obtained content via search warrant, including ads, acct details, targeting.
5/ That is huge news. It means that Mueller has concluded that specific foreign individuals committed a crime by making a “contribution”
6/ in connection with an election. It also means that he has evidence of that crime that convinced a federal magistrate judge of two things.
7/ First, that there was good reason to believe that the foreign individual committed the crime. Second, that evidence of the crime existed
8/ on Facebook. Why is that big news? Until now, Mueller’s efforts to obtain information about Russian interference in the election could
9/ be seen as an effort to gain counterintelligence or to investigate a matter unlikely to result in charges. Now we know he believes that
10/ he’s close to charging specific foreign people with a crime. Can he do that? Yes, if they committed a crime in the U.S.
11/ For example, my former boss indicted Osama Bin Laden for the first World Trade Center bombing.
12/ So what does this mean for Trump and his associates? This news also has large implications for them.
13/ It is a crime to know that a crime is taking place and to help it succeed. That’s aiding and abetting. If any Trump associate knew about
14/ the foreign contributions that Mueller’s search warrant focused on and helped that effort in a tangible way, they could be charged.
15/ In addition, anyone who agreed to be part of this effort in any way could be charged with criminal conspiracy. They wouldn’t need to
16/ be involved in the whole operation or know everyone involved but they would have to agree to be part of some piece of it.
17/ One thing I should note is that this particular violation of the law preventing foreign contributions in connection with an election
18/ is far stronger than earlier speculation that Donald Trump Jr. violated the same law by accepting information from the Russian attorney.
19/ One hurdle is that to violate the statute criminally, you have to do so knowingly and willfully. Here, Mueller has evidence that the
20/ foreigner(s) had that intent, and it is far more difficult for an American to claim that he/she didn’t know that a massive Russian
21/ influence operation was against the law than it would be to claim that about hearing talk at a meeting. Jurors would be inclined to
22/ convict anyone who was part of or aided a Russian effort to subvert our election.
23/ If I represented someone who was caught up in this part of the investigation, I’d be very worried. /end
Facebook was playing coy until Bobby Three Sticks came knocking at their door
https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/908826638221287425
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/909175834925297664
https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/908430779868438529
https://twitter.com/maddow/status/908425575236284417
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/908435229391642624
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/908430553350852608
https://twitter.com/AngrierWHStaff/status/909120500462444544
The data ALWAYS leads to Kushner and the Mercers