WikiLeaks Set Off an Attack on Our Trump-Russia Project—Right After Messaging Donald Trump Jr. About It
Ron Sachs/DPA/AP; Ben Cawthra/Rex Shutterstock/ZUMA; Mother Jones illustration Additional reporting for this story was contributed by Denise Clifton and AJ Vicens. On Monday, The Atlantic published private messages from September 2016 in which WikiLeaks gave Donald Trump Jr. the password to a forthcoming site documenting his father’s ties to Russia. But there was more to the…
Carter Page’s Mysterious Trip to Budapest Highlights Hungary’s Effort to Win Over Trump
Imago/ZUMA Press; Korotayev Artyom/TASS/ZUMA Press; Mark Reinstein/ZUMA Press What was Carter Page up to in Budapest? Among the notable nuggets in the 243-page transcript of his recent interview with the House Intelligence Committee is discussion of Page’s August 2016 trip to the Hungarian capital. Page met there with Hungarian officials including the nation’s ambassador to…
Putin’s Trolls Used the Texas Church Massacre to Sow More Chaos
Mother Jones illustration False information inundated social media after Sunday’s mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Russian trolls were in the thick of it. Conspiracy theorists like Mike Cernovich led the way, falsely branding shooter Devin Patrick Kelly as a member of the far-left antifa movement, and the Russian media outlet RT America had…
Jeff Sessions Under Fire As New Revelations Cast Further Doubt on His Russia Testimony
Bill Clark/ZUMA Sen. Al Franken on Thursday issued a fiery letter demanding answers from US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, amid reports Sessions emphatically rejected a proposal in March 2016 from former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “This newest revelation strongly suggests that the Senate—and…
Controversial Agriculture Nominee Withdraws Amid Russia Scandal
Sam Clovis in Sioux City, Iowa, March 24, 2014.Jerry Mennenga/via ZUMA Wire President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for a key Department of Agriculture post withdrew from consideration Thursday, just days after the emergence of explosive details about his involvement in the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign aide who the…
Here Are the Social Media Ads That Russia Used to Influence the Election
The House intelligence committee on Wednesday released a trove of social media ads from 2016 that were created by firms connected to the Russian government with the purpose of influencing the election. The sample ads spanned a wide variety of divisive topics—religion, race gun control, and more—and appear to confirm lawmakers’ concerns that Russia sought…