President Trump, along with his son, former campaign manager, and other close associates highlighted the tweets of an account controlled by a Kremlin-linked “troll farm.”
The Internet Research Agency, a troll farm operating out of St. Petersburg, ran the Twitter account @Ten_GOP, which posed as the “Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans,” according to the Daily Beast.
The account, which was created in November 2015, racked up more than 100,000 followers before it was eventually shut down by Twitter in August.
While the Internet Research Agency denied any direct connection with the Kremlin to the independent Russian outlet RBC, American intelligence said it was part of a wider effort to stoke tensions within the U.S. and throw the election to Trump.
When the account tweeted “We love you, Mr. President!”, Trump responded in September saying “So nice, thank you!”
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also retweeted a Ten_GOP post in the days before the election that highlighted Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“Mother of jailed sailor: ‘Hold Hillary to same standards as my son on Classified info’ #hillarysemail #WeinerGate,” the tweet read.
Brad Parscale, who was the Trump campaign’s digital director, retweeted a Ten_GOP post about the “biased Media,” while Donald Trump Jr. shared a post claiming voter fraud was occurring in Broward County, Fla., a week before the elections.
The account, which was quoted on websites like The Gateway Pundit and InfoWars, was also retweeted by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, his son, and former campaign adviser Roger Stone.
Former FBI counterterrorism agent Clint Watts told the Daily Beast, “They are seeding out information or narratives they know candidates or partisans will use. They were so effective, they had the very top people in the campaign using it.”
“Basically, Russia loaded the gun. The Trump team fired,” he added.
The Internet Research Agency also ran 3,000 ads on divisive political and social issues that reached about 10 million users on Facebook.
The group went so far so to spend approximately $80,000 to pay activists in the U.S., RBC reported.
