Russia said to aid effort to release memo on FBI probe

Washington

TOP Democrats on Tuesday called on Facebook and Twitter to investigate what lawmakers said are Russian efforts to promote the release of a classified Republican memo criticising the FBI probe of Russia's meddling in the 2016 campaign. #ReleaseTheMemo and other hashtags have been trending on Twitter in recent days, and accounts affiliated with Russian influence efforts have been supporting this campaign, said the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a US-based group that examines efforts to interfere in democratic institutions.

"If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process," said a letter to Facebook and Twitter from Representative Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats from California who are the top members of their party on the House Intelligence Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee, respectively.

Efforts to disclose the classified memo, prepared by Republican congressional staffers, have in recent days moved to the centre of a sharply partisan debate over the actions of investigators probing President Donald Trump, his campaign and his associates. Some conservative lawmakers and prominent media personalities are pushing for the memo to be declassified and published to illuminate what they say have been improper actions by the FBI and Justice Department officials.

At the centre of these allegations are claims that investigators erred in conducting electronic surveillance in 2016 based on what critics contend was faulty information provided by British former spy Christopher Steele. He was author of the now-famous Steele dossier, which used anonymous sources to sketch a broad portrait of financial and personal ties between Russians and the Trump campaign. The dossier, whose contents Mr Steele brought to the attention of the FBI in 2016, was among the early sources of allegations that triggered the probe now led by special counsel Robert Mueller III.

People who have read the classified memo say it seeks to discredit the Steele dossier's allegations and suggests that he lied to the FBI. The memo also alleges that agents later used flawed information provided by Mr Steele to secure a court order to conduct electronic surveillance on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Mr Steele has not publicly commented on the allegations reportedly contained in the memo.

FBI spokesman Andrew Ames said the bureau "has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined". A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus have sought to enlist Mr Trump's help in their bid to win public release of the memo.

Democrats have dismissed the Republican campaign to publish the memo as a bid to undermine a legitimate law enforcement probe into Mr Trump's campaign and transition. Democrats also have said that releasing information in the memo would amount to a break from past practice in the handling of classified material.

Mr Trump did not offer to back Freedom Caucus members seeking to force a vote releasing the document as a condition for supporting a short-term funding bill to head off the federal government's looming shutdown, sources said. They added that Mr Trump told the members that he needed a clean deal on government funding. A vote on releasing the memo did not materialise last week, and the federal government shut down over the weekend before resuming operations on Monday.

By Thursday evening, conservative Republicans had begun to tweet using the hashtag #ReleaseThe Memo.

A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, confirmed that Mr Trump plans to declassify the memo if the House agrees to release it. Mr Ryan has been deferring to Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, on how to proceed.

In alleging involvement by Russian trolls and bots, Mr Schiff and Ms Feinstein cite the Alliance for Securing Democracy, part of the German Marshall Fund. The group hosts on its website a dashboard that tracks roughly 600 accounts that the group says echo or otherwise support Russian influence efforts, though in some cases this is done unwittingly, according to information posted on the site. It adds that many of the accounts are not directly controlled by Russia but amplify key themes put forth by Russian government media. The dashboard, called "Hamilton 68: Tracking Russian Influence Operations on Twitter," shows #ReleaseTheMemo as the most commonly used hashtag by tracked accounts over the past 48 hours.

Facebook confirmed that it had received the letter from Mr Schiff and Ms Feinstein but did not immediately make further comment. Twitter issued a statement saying the company "is committed to addressing malicious activity on our platform, and we take any assertions of such activity very seriously."

Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and creator of the Hamilton 68 dashboard, said the research does not claim that the hashtag was created by Russian operatives, but that Russian operatives amplified its messages.

Jonathon Morgan, founder of the nonprofit Data for Democracy, who also helped develop the dashboard, said that his group found a surge of about 400 new Russian bot accounts that were created in January. Another set of accounts tweeting the hashtag was created in 2009. "It was as if somebody flipped the switch - as if someone copied the same message, the same hashtag, and we were tweeting about the same events, all at the same time," Mr Morgan said. "The key takeaway is these accounts were created just in January. So the idea that Twitter is on top of its bot problem, well, I think they are failing."

The Alliance for Securing Democracy tracking tool does not attempt to measure how much of the social media conversation about the memo comes from accounts related to Russia. Such a project would involve too much work and time.

In seeking help from Twitter and Facebook on Tuesday, Mr Schiff and Ms Feinstein reminded the companies of their inability to stop Russian disinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign. Both companies have since acknowledged that the Internet Research Agency, in St Petersburg, used their social media platforms to spread divisive messages during the election and its aftermath.

The Democratic lawmakers demanded a report by Friday and urged the companies to shut down any participating accounts found in violation of company policies.

The urgent request for investigation underscores growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill of the influence of social media on American politics. The letter is addressed to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey. It cites no evidence of Russian influence efforts on Facebook, but investigations of Russian manipulation of social media during the 2016 campaign found widespread exploitation of US-based social media platforms. Researchers have a more difficult time tracking the flow of information on Facebook than Twitter, whose posts are more widely available to the public than on Facebook. WP