Federal agents investigating possible collusion between Russian operatives and Breitbart.com

Hunter

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday March 21, 2017 · 10:21 AM PDT

2017/03/21 · 10:21

Trump campaign CEP Stephen Bannon watches as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses the final rally of his 2016 presidential campaign at Devos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 7, 2016. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) — Steve Bannon

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Sure, let's throw this into the mix as well: U.S. counterintelligence officials are investigating whether figures at a number of far-right websites—including Breitbart "News," the white nationalist-allied site then managed by Donald Trump's top advisor Steve Bannon—were themselves coordinating with Russian agents.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories [from Breitbart and other sites] at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said. [...]
Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives. Their participation, however, wasn’t necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.

It's not at all clear why FBI investigators would be probing this. Building "bots" to heavily promote pro-Trump narratives churned out by Brietbart or other far-right websites requires no input at all from those sites themselves; it's not immediately clear what such coordination would even consist of.

At the same time, FBI Director James Comey patiently explained to congressional questioners just yesterday that such investigations are not undertaken unless there is "a credible allegation of wrongdoing," which means counterintelligence officers have seen something about the link between far-right news sites and Russian intelligence efforts that has convinced them they need to examine that relationship further.

So that's a hell of a thing.

Federal agents investigating possible collusion between Russian operatives and Breitbart.com

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