REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
- A Twitter account that claimed to represent Tennessee Republicans was run by the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency.
- Members of President Donald Trump’s family and campaign staff promoted tweets from this account.
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The account attracted more than 100,000 followers and was suspended in August.
Members of Trump’s family and campaign staff, including Donald Trump Jr. and Kellyanne Conway, promoted tweets affiliated with a Russian “troll farm” during the 2016 election, a new report says.
An account that claimed to be the unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans used the username @Ten_GOP and was run by the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency, according to the Daily Beast.
Conway, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, retweeted two days before the 2016 election one of @Ten_GOP’s tweets that said, “Mother of jailed sailor: ‘Hold Hillary to same standards as my son on Classified info’ #hillarysemail #WeinerGate.”
Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital director on the campaign, also retweeted one of the posts that read, “Thousands of deplorables chanting to the media: ‘Tell The Truth!’ RT if you are also done w/ biased Media!”
Trump Jr. had followed the account and had retweeted their posts on three different occasions. One week before the election, he retweeted, “BREAKING: #VoterFraud by counting tens of thousands of ineligible mail in Hillary votes being reported in Broward County, Florida Please, RT.”
On Election Day, he also retweeted a post that read, “This vet passed away last month before he could vote for Trump.. Here he is in his #MAGA hat.. #voted #ElectionDay.”
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn also retweeted the account on at least one occasion, and his son retweeted the account a total of 34 times.
After Flynn was fired in February after it was disclosed he misled the Trump administration about his contacts with Russian officials, the account promoted for Flynn to be reappointed as national security adviser.
The account, which was created in Nov. 2015 and attracted more than 100,000 followers, was suspended in August.
The Senate Intelligence Committee met with Twitter earlier this month to discuss how Russia interfered with the election on Twitter. The Committee also invited Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to testify publicly on Nov. 1.
