RUSSIANS TARGET MUELLER, REPORTS SAY

Russia’s online disinformation campaign targeted special counsel Robert Mueller on multiple social media platforms, posting messages that sought to frame Mueller as corrupt and untrustworthy, according to a new report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Researchers with the firm New Knowledge found that the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) posted images and memes seeking to discredit Mueller as one method of sowing discord in the U.S.

One meme posted on Instagram claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with “radical Islamic groups,” as first noted by The Washington Post.

Across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms, Russians sought to amplify negative messages about Mueller.

Mueller earlier this year indicted the St. Petersburg-based IRA, along with other Russian bodies involved in the disinformation campaign, on criminal charges.

The disinformation campaign overall targeted some of the most divisive topics in U.S. politics, including distrust in the media, minority rights, feminism, law enforcement, and more, researchers found.

Russians used Instagram broadly in the first six months after President Trump was elected, according to the New Knowledge researchers. Some anti-Mueller messages circulated on the image-sharing app, which is owned by Facebook.

The New Knowledge analysis was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week alongside another report conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and the digital analytics firm Graphika.

Both reports concluded that the Internet Research Agency sought to promote Trump and the Republican Party, in part by seeking to suppress African-American voters and spreading conspiracy theories.