Mueller Indicts Employees of Russian ‘Troll Farm’ Internet Research Agency - New York Magazine

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February 16, 2018

Mueller Indicts Employees of Russian ‘Troll Farm’ Internet Research Agency

By

Brian Feldman

@bafeldman

This afternoon, as part of his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted a number of Russian individuals and organizations — including the infamous Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked “troll farm” known for its social-media campaigns. The indictment contains allegations confirming what most of us already know — that the IRA was engaged in “information warfare” to “sow discord” during the 2016 election through its use of social-media accounts falsely claiming to be ordinary Americans. “The conspiracy had as its object impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of the United States by dishonest means in order to enable the Defendants to interfere with U.S. political and electoral processes,” the indictment states.

IRA employees, known as “specialists,” were directed to create social-media accounts and “were divided into day-shift and night-shift hours and instructed to make posts in accordance with the appropriate U.S. time zone,” as well as making comments related to American holidays. They also created social-media pages surrounding divisive issues, with names like “Secured Borders,” “Blacktivist,” “United Muslims of America,” and “Heart of Texas.” The indictment says that many of the pages had follower counts in the hundreds of thousands. It also confirms that the IRA ran the @TEN_GOP Twitter account, which its counterpart, the real Tennessee GOP Party, spent months trying to get shut down.

While the objective of “sowing discord” is floaty and inexact, the political aims of the online work was clear: Throughout the 2016 campaign, the IRA’s workers were ordered to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them).” IRA employees who ran the “Secured Borders” page were criticized for not having enough posts criticizing Clinton. They purchased ads on social media to that end.

The Russians also tried to suppress minority turnout in the campaign. Pages that appeared to support social-justice issues encouraged users to not vote at all or vote for a third-party candidate, and highlighted Clinton’s hawkishness.

Some of the Russian effort manifested in real-world meetups organized by deceiving real Americans into participating, or paying them to do things like dress up as Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform (“she wants to continue the war on Muslims in the middle east”).

By the time Trump had claimed the nomination, the IRA had turned to building him up and tearing Clinton down. In June of 2016, the indictment states, the @march_for_trump account contacted a volunteer for the Trump campaign in New York, and the volunteer agreed to provide signs for a rally that the IRA-run account was organizing. It’s interactions like these that are central to Mueller’s investigation — how an American campaign interacted with foreign agents, wittingly or unwittingly.

Donald Trump's alleged affair with Playboy model reveals 'systemic' pattern of concealing stories, says Ronan Farrow - ABC News

Donald Trump's alleged affair with Playboy model reveals 'systemic' pattern of concealing stories, says Ronan Farrow

By MORGAN WINSOR Feb 16, 2018, 11:50 AM ET

Those loyal to Donald Trump went to great lengths to conceal his alleged affair with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal through secret meetings, pay-offs and legal agreements, according to Ronan Farrow's latest bombshell report in The New Yorker.

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In an interview today with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America," Farrow said McDougal's firsthand account of her alleged affair with Trump, beginning in June 2006, reveals a "systemic" pattern of "catch and kill," or purchasing a story in order to sweep it under the rug.

"The underlying chronicle of the affair reveals a lot of important patterns that we're now seeing in the multiple accounts of either consensual affairs or alleged nonconsensual activity with Trump," Farrow said.

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Karen McDougall attends the Movieline Hollywood Life Young Hollywood Awards event in Hollywood, Calif., circa 2005.

According to Farrow, McDougal recorded her alleged nine-month relationship with Trump "in an eight-page, handwritten document" provided to The New Yorker by her friend, John Crawford. Trump was married to his current wife, Melania, at the time of the alleged affair.

Throughout the course of their alleged affair, "Trump flew McDougal to public events across the country but hid the fact that he paid for her travel," Farrow wrote in the magazine. McDougal ended the relationship in April 2007, according to Farrow.

In November 2016, just four days before the presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported that American Media Inc. (AMI), the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid $150,000 for the exclusive rights to McDougal's story.

“AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump,” according to a written statement the company gave to The Journal in 2016.

In a statement to The New Yorker, AMI said it never published the story because the company said it didn't find McDougal's account credible.

"Six former AMI employees tell me that's not the case," Farrow said on "GMA."

David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc., poses for a photo in Boca Raton, Fla., Dec. 12, 2000.

Farrow said this "catch and kill" method was "routine activity" by AMI CEO and Chairman David Pecker, "who has publicly pledged his loyalty to Trump."

"This is the interesting and potentially troubling dimension," Farrow said. "These dirty stories about high-profile individuals would be used as leverage over those individuals -- obviously national security implications here when that happens to be the president."

He added, "Our reporting certainly suggests that, again, according to those AMI insiders, there was knowledge of this loyalty to Trump and that this flowed from that. We do not report that Trump ordered this."

In a statement to The New Yorker, AMI refuted that it had any leverage over Trump. “The suggestion that AMI holds any influence over the President of the United States, while flattering, is laughable,” the statement said.

A White House spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News that Trump denies having had an affair with the former Playboy model: "This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal."

Ronan Farrow speaks to George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America," Feb. 16, 2018.

Farrow reported that McDougal declined to discuss the details about the alleged affair with him, for fear of violating the contract she signed with AMI.

"She feels she was trapped into an exploitative contract that bound her to silence, and that's something that she finds very frustrating," Farrow told Stephanopoulos. "She was sort of backed into a situation where she feared the story was going to leak and she signed this deal after pitching it in several places. She, I think, readily admits that she consented to that deal, but feels now the heavy burden of silence."

According to Farrow, AMI said an amendment to McDougal’s contract, which was signed after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, allowed her to "respond to legitimate press inquiries" about the alleged affair.

"She says she cannot," Farrow said. "She and her representatives feel that that is not the case, looking at the letter of the contract."

Donald Trump during speaks during a press conference in New York, April 4, 2006.

This week, Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen acknowledged using his private funds shortly before the 2016 presidential election to pay $130,000 to a porn actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

“In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,” Cohen said in a statement emailed to ABC News on Wednesday, referencing the actress also known as Stormy Daniels.

Cohen’s statement, first reported by The New York Times, came in direct response to a Jan. 22 complaint filed by Common Cause, a watchdog group, with the Federal Election Commission, questioning whether the payment represented an illegal, in-kind contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign, or whether the campaign reimbursed Cohen for the expense.

In the wake of other allegations of affairs involving Trump, Farrow said there has been an "uptick in contact" between AMI and McDougal.

"That contact has sharply increased and, as recently as several days ago, they were aggressively seeking to have her sign new contracts," he said.

Farrow said his reporting divulges "new" and "unprecedented" revelations about Trump.

"In this country, the most powerful and wealthy men can command an elaborate system to silence people with stories about them that they don't want out in the public, and obviously for a sitting president to be the beneficiary of such a system is a pretty unprecedented thing," he said.

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MIAMI BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 06: Karen McDougal attends Playboy's Super Saturday Night Party at Sagamore Hotel on February 6, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Playboy)

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Washington (CNN)A former Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Donald Trump beginning in 2006 is going public with a description of Trump's alleged system for concealing affairs.

In an eight-page, handwritten document that The New Yorker obtained, Karen McDougal detailed her alleged affair with Trump for nine months from June 2006 to April 2007, when Trump was two years into his marriage with Melania Trump, the future first lady. The document was provided to The New Yorker by McDougal's friend, but she confirmed to the magazine that the handwriting in the document is hers.

The magazine's story was published on Friday.

The document describes how Trump allegedly carried out his affair with McDougal -- paying for dinner in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, offering her money after the first time they had sex and reimbursing her for travel.

"No paper trails for him," McDougal wrote, according to The New Yorker.

A White House spokesperson denied the affair in a statement to the magazine.

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"This is an old story that is just more fake news. The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal," the spokesperson said.

Trump also made comments McDougal found disrespectful, including calling her mother, who was close to Trump's age, an "old hag," and a lewd, stereotypical reference to black men's genitals, The New Yorker reported, citing multiple sources.

After ending the affair, McDougal signed a limited life-story rights agreement in August 2016, granting American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer -- an outlet that's published material favorable to Trump -- exclusive ownership of her story for $150,000.

However, the company -- run by David Pecker, a friend of Trump's -- never ran her story and, according to The New Yorker, instead used the purchase to kill the piece. The company told the magazine it did not print it because it did not find McDougal's story to be credible.

Jerry George, a former senior editor for American Media, Inc., told The New Yorker that Pecker routinely buys and kills stories, and also protects Trump, who he considers a friend.

"We never printed a word about Trump without his approval," George told The New Yorker.

The company, according to the report, also agreed to publish regular columns by McDougal on aging and wellness, and to "prominently feature" her on two magazine covers.

McDougal told the The New Yorker she regretted signing the contract.

"It took my rights away," McDougal said. "At this point I feel I can't talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I'm afraid to even mention his name."

McDougal told the magazine she hopes speaking out would convince others to avoid signing similar agreements.

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According to the magazine, McDougal, a Republican, was at first reluctant to speak about her alleged affair during the presidential campaign, fearing that Trump supporters might accuse her of fabricating her account or harming her or her family. She told The New Yorker she wanted to avoid "(influencing) anybody's election" or receiving "death threats on my head."

The Wall Street Journal, however, did publish a story about the alleged affair and the arrangement with the National Enquirer days before the 2016 election.

The story's publication comes after Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he paid $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, a porn star who goes by the name Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election. Clifford allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President before his time in office, though Cohen said Trump "vehemently denies" any encounter between the two.

Like McDougal, Clifford was barred from telling her story but because she signed a non-disclosure agreement. A manager for Clifford has claimed the agreement is no longer valid because of Cohen's disclosure about the payment.

Clifford's attorney, Keith Davidson, was also retained by McDougal to negotiate her deal with AMI, though he no longer represents McDougal.

Trump has previously faced accusations of having several extramarital affairs before he was elected President. He has also been accused by at least 15 women of a wide range of sexual misconduct accusations, including sexual assault, sexual harassment and lewd behavior. Trump has denied the allegations and at one point threatened to sue his accusers, though he has yet to do so.

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Pressure is mounting on the FBI over the agency's failure to act on a tip that Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz might carry out an attack.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said the agency's director must resign, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review, lamenting FBI "failures".

Some of those close to the 17 victims of Wednesday's shooting also voiced dismay at the FBI's actions.

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Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited a hospital and later the local sheriff's office, thanking them for their response to the tragedy.

"What a great job you've done," Mr Trump told law enforcement officials, adding: "I hope you get credit for it because believe me, you deserve it."

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Nikolas Cruz, 19, has confessed to carrying out Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and has been charged with 17 counts of murder.

It was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012 and has re-ignited debates about gun control, with many students from the school weighing in.

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It comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted it did not properly follow up on a warning about Mr Cruz.

On 5 January a person close to the suspect contacted the FBI tipline to provide "information about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behaviour, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting", an FBI statement said.

The FBI said that information should have been assessed as a potential threat to life and passed on to the Miami field office but that "we have determined these protocols were not followed".

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was "still investigating the facts" and was committed to "getting to the bottom of what happened".

"We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy," he added.

The 5 January tip was not the only information the FBI received about Nikolas Cruz.

In September, a Mississippi man reported to the law enforcement agency a disturbing comment left on a YouTube video by a user called "nikolas cruz" which said: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

Ben Bennight said he spoke to FBI representatives for about 20 minutes and that they contacted him again following the Parkland shooting.

The FBI on Thursday said they had conducted "checks" at the time, but were unable to identify the person behind the comment.

Questions are also being asked about how local police responded to concern about Nikolas Cruz.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his office had received 20 "calls for service" about him.

Each one would be scrutinised, he said, without going into detail about the nature of the calls.

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Governor Scott said in a statement that "the FBI's failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable".

He said that an apology would never give families "the answers they desperately need" and said that Mr Wray had to resign.

"We constantly promote 'see something, say something,' and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act," he said.

At a funeral for 18-year-old victim Meadow Pollack, Jeff Richman, a family friend, questioned the value of the FBI's apology.

"The FBI apologised? Tell that to families," he told Reuters news agency.

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Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the FBI's "failures" had led to "tragic consequences", and announced a review at the justice department and FBI into how "indications of potential violence" are responded to.

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In 2016, the FBI received about 1,300 tips a day through its website, which is staffed around the clock by two dozen people.

In addition to online tips, FBI field offices receive dozens of calls. About 100 of the tips are considered "actionable".

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Mr Cruz had been expelled from the school he has confessed to attacking and some students said they had previously joked he would one day "shoot up the school".

One former schoolmate, Chad Williams, said Mr Cruz was an "outcast" who was "crazy about guns".

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His interest in weapons was apparent on his social media profiles, which the Broward County sheriff said were "very, very disturbing".

Mr Cruz had reportedly been treated for mental health issues at a clinic.