Russian woman charged in 1st 2018 election meddling case
WASHINGTON — The U.S. accused a Russian woman on Friday of helping oversee the finances of a sweeping, secretive effort to sway American public opinion through social media in the first federal case alleging foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections.
The criminal complaint against Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova alleges that Russians are using some of the same techniques to influence U.S. politics as they relied on ahead of the 2016 presidential election, methods laid bare by an investigation from special counsel Robert Mueller into possible coordination between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign.
Justice Department prosecutors claim that Khusyaynova, of St. Petersburg, helped manage the finances of a hidden but powerful Russian social media effort aimed at spreading distrust for American political candidates and causing divisions on hot-button social issues like immigration and gun control.
The Justice Department unsealed the criminal complaint on the same day that U.S. intelligence agencies, in a rare public statement, asserted that Russia, China, Iran and other countries are engaged in continuous efforts to influence American policy and voters in the upcoming elections and beyond. National security adviser John Bolton heads to Russia on Saturday.
The U.S. is concerned about the foreign campaigns “to undermine confidence in democratic institutions and influence public sentiment and government policies,” said the statement from national security officials. The statement, which provided no details about any such efforts, said, “These activities also may seek to influence voter perceptions and decision-making in the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections.”
The national security agencies said they currently do not have any evidence that voting systems have been disrupted or compromised in ways that could result in changing vote counts or hampering the ability to tally votes in the midterms, which are 2½ weeks away.
Prosecutors allege that Khusyaynova worked for the same social media troll farm that was indicted earlier this year by Mueller, and the social media effort they outlined Friday largely mirrors the special counsel’s criminal case against three Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, and 13 Russians — including a close ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The conduct singled out Friday runs afoul of criminal laws that bar foreign nationals from attempting to influence American elections or from engaging in political activities without first registering with the attorney general, prosecutors said. The new prosecution was brought not by Mueller but by the Justice Department’s national security division and prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia. There is no allegation in the complaint of coordination with the Trump campaign.
Asked about the new accusation against the Russians, Trump responded that it had “nothing to do with me.”
The court papers pull back the curtains on a Russian effort to use thousands of fake social media profiles, and email accounts that appeared to be from people inside the U.S., to influence American politics. The goal was not necessarily to espouse one political ideology over another, prosecutors say, but rather “create and amplify divisive social and political content” including on significant current events such as deadly shootings in South Carolina and Las Vegas, prosecutors said.
One fake persona, registered to “Bertha Malone,” made over 400 Facebook posts containing inflammatory content. One post falsely alleged ties between President Barack Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood. Another fake Facebook account, in the name of “Rachell Edison,” made more than 700 posts focused on gun control and the Second Amendment.
The Russian organizers of the conspiracy advised that the posts should reflect various viewpoints, and they gave specific instructions to only share articles from certain news websites to correspond to specific political views, prosecutors said.
“If you write posts in a liberal group...you must not use Breitbart titles,” one of the group’s members warned, court papers say. “On the contrary, if you write posts in a conservative group, do not use Washington Post or BuzzFeed’s titles.”