Were Votes Changed? Trump Probe Looks Into Campaign, Russian Targeting Of Swing States

Investigators at the Justice Department and the House and Senate Intelligence committees are examining possible collusion between the digital operation of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, led by Jared Kushner—and Russia’s online propaganda efforts, McClatchy reported.

The investigators are looking to see if the Trump campaign had any role in directing Russian operatives to target voters in several key states with a flood of fake news designed to harm Hillary Clinton.

Read: Hillary Clinton Blames 'Weaponizing Technology' Used By Russians For 2016 Election Loss

The inquires will also look into the possibility that Trump associates and members of the now-president’s campaign in 2016 coordinate the release of thousands of emails stolen from the accounts of top Democratic operatives, including Clinton confidant John Podesta.

The focus on the emails also suggests a possible involvement with Wikileaks, the transparency website founded by Julian Assange. Because Wikileaks was the primary publisher or most of the stolen emails, it is possible one party was communicating with the publication to orchestrate releases.

While it is unclear what role the Trump campaign played in orchestrating Russian activity, intelligence agencies have made it clear that Russia did attempt to impact the U.S. election, going so far as to target voting software companies and local election officials.

Russian hackers were able to successfully gain access to some voter rolls and stole voter data and personal information. It is not believed the hackers were able to gain access or modify any vote totals that would have changed the outcome of the election.

Congressman Adam Schiff, D-CA, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told McClatchy he wants to find out whether the “fake or damaging news stories” pushed by Russian operations were “coordinated in any way in terms of targeting or in terms of timing or in terms of any other measure … with the (Trump) campaign.”

Following the 2016 presidential election, BuzzFeed published an analysis that found fake news stories spread via social media campaigns were getting more traction than actual news stories reported by reputable outlets.

Read: Twitter Considers 'Fake News' Feature To Flag False Or Misleading Content

Of the most popular stories to spread during the campaign were claims that Hillary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS while she was serving as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama and a false story about the pope endorsing Trump.

It is believed many of those stories were pushed into their viral cycle by a network of bots operated by Russians agents. The bots can quickly share and spread stories, generating interest in them and leading others to view and share them as well.

According to McClatchy, investigators at the Justice Department believe it would be difficult for the Russians controlling the botnets to know where to target voters with the false stories without some sort of direction with knowledge of the U.S. electorate.

The Trump campaign touted its digital operation before and after the election, crediting its digital branch in large part for its victory. The initiative was run by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, who is currently serving in the administration as a senior advisor.

Earlier this year, Kushner was named as a “person of interest” by the Justice Department in its investigation. It was recently revealed that Kushner sat in on a meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have compromising information on Hillary Clinton. The meeting, organized by Donald Trump, Jr., has further raised suspicions of the possibility of collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government.