Russia-linked handles handed over Ex-White House chief of staff quizzed in Russia probe
Menlo Park (US), Oct. 14: Twitter has handed over to Senate investigators the profile names, or “handles,” of 201 accounts linked to Russian attempts at influencing the 2016 presidential election.
The company has stepped up its efforts to cooperate with investigators after it was criticised for not taking congressional probes seriously enough. The handover occurred this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorised to speak publicly about it.
What remains unclear is whether posts associated with those accounts have been deleted from Twitter’s servers. Politico reported on Friday that the company had deleted the tweets in line with its privacy policy. Twitter had no comment on that report.
The company’s policy calls for removing tweets that a user deletes on their own. Washington: Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus submitted to questioning by investigators looking into Russian meddling in the US presidential campaign and possible collusion by associates of President Donald Trump, US media said.
“He was happy to answer all of their questions,” Mr Priebus’s lawyer William Burck said. Priebus himself did not comment but Politico said he had been preparing for several weeks for the interview.
Mr Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but Mr Mueller’s team showed interest in the Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey over his Russia probe, according to the reports. Other areas of interest are Trump’s eldest son’s meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the campaign.