Congressional Record, Volume 165 Issue 81 (Wednesday, May 15, 2019)

[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 15, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H3827-H3830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 1630
THE MUELLER REPORT

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to lead a reading of
parts of the Mueller report, otherwise called the ``Report On The
Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential
Election.'' As I said, it is more commonly known as the Mueller report.
It documents widespread and effective foreign intervention to target
voters and influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
This operation, led by Russian agents, was a direct attack on our
democracy. The report has not been taken seriously by the
administration. Even worse, it has been ignored for fear it would
somehow minimize President Trump's electoral college victory and bruise
his ego.
It is critical that we set the record straight and work to address an
ongoing threat that Russia poses to our future elections.
My fellow Members and I will be reading excerpts taken directly from
the report, documenting the Russian campaign to secure a Trump
Presidency.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. Heck), to read his quote.
Mr. HECK. Madam Speaker, from volume I, page 14, section 2, entitled:
``Russian `Active Measures' Social Media Campaign,'' it read as
follows:
``The IRA''--which was a Russian troll farm. ``The IRA and its
employees began operations targeting the United States as early as
2014. Using fictitious U.S. personas, IRA employees operated social
media accounts and group pages designed to attract U.S. audiences.
These groups and accounts, which addressed divisive U.S. political and
social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists. Over
time, the social media accounts became a means to reach large U.S.
audiences. IRA employees traveled to the United States in mid-2014 on
an intelligence-gathering mission to obtain information and photographs
for use in their social media posts.''
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for coming.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) to read a quote
from the Mueller report.
Ms. MOORE. Madam Speaker, of course I am reading from volume I, pages
22 through 24, inclusive.
``Dozens of IRA employees were responsible for operating accounts and
personas on different U.S. social media platforms. The IRA referred to
employees assigned to operate the social

[[Page H3828]]

media accounts as `specialists.' Starting as early as 2014, the IRA's
U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing on Facebook,
YouTube, and Twitter. The IRA later added specialists who operated on
Tumblr and Instagram accounts.
``Initially, the IRA created social media accounts that pretended to
be the personal accounts of U.S. persons. By early 2015, the IRA began
to create larger social media groups, or public social media pages that
claimed (falsely) to be affiliated with the U.S. political and
grassroots organizations. In certain cases, the IRA created accounts
that mimicked real U.S. organizations. For example, one IRA-controlled
Twitter account, @TEN--GOP, purported to be connected to the Tennessee
Republican Party. More commonly, the IRA created accounts in the name
of fictitious U.S. organizations and grassroots groups and used these
accounts to pose as anti-immigration groups, Tea Party activists, Black
Lives Matter protesters, and other U.S. social and political activists.
``The IRA closely monitored the activity of the social media
accounts--redacted. By February 2016, internal IRA documents referred
to support for the Trump campaign and opposition to candidate Clinton.
For example,--redacted--directions to IRA operators--redacted. `Main
idea: Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary Clinton and the rest,
(except Sanders and Trump--we support them)'--redacted.
``The focus on the U.S. Presidential campaign continued throughout
2016. In--redacted--2016 internal--redacted--reviewing the IRA-
controlled Facebook book `Secured Borders' the author criticized the
`lower number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton' and
reminded the Facebook specialist, `it is imperative to intensify
criticizing Hillary Clinton.' IRA employees also acknowledged that
their work focused on influencing the U.S. Presidential election--
redacted.''
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for reading.
Madam Speaker, I am going to read a quote from the Mueller reporter
dealing with Russian interference.
``The first form of Russian election influence came principally from
the Internet Research Agency''--and you will hear this evening, over
and over again, the name IRA, and that is what it is--``the Internet
Research Agency, LLC (IRA), a Russian organization, funded by Yevgeniy
Viktorovich Prigozhin and companies he controlled, including Concord
Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, (collectively
`Concord'). The IRA conducted social media operations targeted at large
U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political
system. These operations constituted `active measures'''--and it is
translated into Russian--``a term that typically refers to operations
conducted by Russian security services aimed at influencing the course
of international affairs.''
That is volume I, page 14.
I am going the read one more, and this is from volume I, pages 14 and
15.
``By the end of the 2016 U.S. election, the IRA''--that is that
Russian organization that has influenced the media in the United States
of America in our elections--``the IRA had the ability to reach
millions of U.S. persons through their social media accounts.
Multiple IRA-controlled Facebook groups and Instagram accounts had
hundreds of thousands of U.S. participants. IRA-controlled Twitter
accounts separately had tens of thousands of followers, including
multiple U.S. political figures who retweeted IRA-created content. In
November 2017, a Facebook representative testified that Facebook had
identified 470 IRA-controlled Facebook accounts that collectively made
80,000 posts between January 2015 and August 2017. Facebook estimated
the IRA reached as many as 126 million persons through its Facebook
accounts. In January 2018, Twitter announced that it had identified
3,814 IRA-controlled Twitter accounts and notified approximately 1.4
million people Twitter believed may have been in contact with an IRA-
controlled account.''

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).
Ms. MOORE. ``The IRA organized and promoted political rallies inside
the United States while posing as U.S. grassroots activists. First, the
IRA used one of its preexisting social media personas (Facebook groups
and Twitter accounts, for example) to announce and promote the event.
The IRA then sent a large number of direct messages to followers of its
social media account asking them to attend the event. From those who
responded with interest in attending, the IRA then sought a U.S. person
to serve as the event's coordinator. In most cases, the IRA account
operator would tell the U.S. person that they personally could not
attend the event due to some preexisting conflict or because they were
somewhere else in the United States. The IRA then further promoted the
event by contacting U.S. media about the event and directing them to
speak with the coordinator. After the event, the IRA posted videos and
photographs of the event to the IRA's social media accounts.
``The office identified dozens of U.S. rallies organized by the IRA.
The earliest evidence of a rally was a `confederate rally' in November
2015. The IRA continued to organize rallies, even after the 2016 U.S.
Presidential election. The attendance at rallies varied. Some rallies
appear to have drawn few (if any) participants, while others drew
hundreds. The reach and success of these rallies was closely
monitored--redacted.''
``Redacted.''
``From June 2016 until the end of Presidential campaign, almost all
the U.S. rallies organized by the IRA focused on the U.S. election,
often promoting the Trump campaign and opposing the Clinton campaign.
Pro-Trump rallies included three in New York, a series of pro-Trump
rallies in Florida in August 2016, and a series of pro-Trump rallies in
October 2016 in Pennsylvania. The Florida rallies drew the attention of
the Trump campaign, which posted about the Miami rally on candidate
Trump's Facebook account (as discussed below).
``Many of the same IRA employees who oversaw the IRA's social media
accounts also conducted the day-to-day recruiting for political rallies
inside the United States.''
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, let me just remind everyone that the
IRA stands for the organization that coordinated all of the online
activities dealing with interference in the U.S. election.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Speier) to read a quote.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, this is from volume I, page 6.
``Summer 2016. Russian outreach to the Trump campaign continued into
the summer of 2016, as candidate Trump was becoming the presumptive
Republican nominee for President. On June 9, 2016, for example, a
Russian lawyer met with senior Trump campaign officials Donald Trump,
Jr., Jared Kushner, and campaign chairman Paul Manafort to deliver what
the email proposing the meeting had described as `official documents
and information that would incriminate Hillary.' ''

{time} 1645

``The materials were offered to Trump Jr. as `part of Russia and its
government's support for Mr. Trump.' The written communications setting
up the meeting showed that the campaign anticipated receiving
information from Russia that could assist candidate Trump's electoral
prospects, but the Russian lawyer's presentation did not provide such
information.''
Testimony of Colin Stretch, the general counsel of Facebook. This is
in volume I, page 15.
`` `We estimate that roughly 29 million people were served content in
their news feeds directly from the IRA's,'' ' and that stands for the
Internet Research Agency's, `` `80,000 posts over the 2 years.' ''
The IRA is the Russian organization in which some 30 persons have
been indicted.
`` `Posts from these pages were also shared, liked, and followed by
people on Facebook, and, as a result, three times more people may have
been exposed to a story that originated from the Russian operation. Our
best estimate is that approximately 126 million people may have been
served content from a page associated with the IRA at some point during
the 2-year period.'
``The Facebook representative also testified that Facebook had
identified 170 Instagram accounts that posted approximately 120,000
pieces of content during that time. Facebook did not

[[Page H3829]]

offer an estimate of the audience reached via Instagram.''
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Reading from volume I, page 33.
``The investigation identified two different forms of connections
between the IRA and members of the Trump campaign. (The investigation
identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton
campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the
Trump campaign promoted--typically by linking, retweeting, or similar
methods of reposting--pro-Trump or anti-Clinton content published by
the IRA through IRA-controlled social media accounts. Additionally, in
a few instances, IRA employees represented themselves as U.S. persons
to communicate with members of the Trump campaign in an effort to seek
assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside
the United States.''
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the great State of
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).
Ms. MOORE. Madam Speaker, I will be reading now from volume I, page
36.
``Beginning in March 2016, units of the Russian Federation's Main
Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) hacked the
computers and email accounts of organizations, employees, and
volunteers supporting the Clinton campaign, including the email account
of campaign chairman John Podesta. Starting in April 2016, the GRU
hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
``The GRU targeted hundreds of email accounts used by Clinton
campaign employees, advisers, and volunteers. In total, the GRU stole
hundreds of thousands of documents from the compromised email accounts
and networks. The GRU later released stolen Clinton campaign and DNC
documents through online personas, `DCLeaks' and `Guccifer 2.0,' and
later through the organization WikiLeaks. The release of the documents
was designed and timed to interfere with the 2016 U.S. Presidential
election and undermine the Clinton campaign.
``The Trump campaign showed interest in the WikiLeaks releases and,
in the summer and fall of 2016--redacted. After--redacted--WikiLeaks'
first Clinton-related release--redacted--the Trump campaign stayed in
contact--redacted--about WikiLeaks' activities. The investigation was
unable to resolve--redacted--WikiLeaks' release of the stolen Podesta
emails on October 7, 2016, the same day a video from years earlier was
published of Trump using graphic language about women.''
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Volume I, page 35.
``Starting in June 2016, the IRA contacted different U.S. persons
affiliated with the Trump campaign in an effort to coordinate pro-Trump
IRA-organized rallies inside the United States. In all cases, the IRA
contacted the campaign while claiming to be U.S. political activists
working on behalf of a conservative grassroots organization. The IRA's
contacts included requests for signs and other materials to use at
rallies, as well as requests to promote the rallies and help coordinate
logistics.
``While certain campaign volunteers agreed to provide the requested
support (for example, agreeing to set aside a number of signs), the
investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump campaign
official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.''
Volume I, page 35.
``In sum, the investigation established that Russia interfered in the
2016 Presidential election through the `active measures' social media
campaign carried out by the IRA, an organization funded by Prigozhin
and companies that he controlled. As explained further . . . the office
concluded (and a grand jury has alleged) that Prigozhin, his companies,
and IRA employees violated U.S. law through these operations,
principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of Federal
agencies charged with regulating foreign influence in the U.S.
elections.''
That is also volume I, page 35.
Volume I, pages 42 and 43.
``On June 14, 2016, the DNC and its cyber-response team announced the
breach of the DNC network and suspected theft of DNC documents. In the
statements, the cyber-response team alleged that Russian state-
sponsored actors (which they referred to as `Fancy Bear') were
responsible for the breach.
``Apparently in response to that announcement, on June 15, 2016, GRU
officers,'' that is, the Russian spy agency officers, ``using the
persona Guccifer 2.0 created a WordPress blog. In the hours leading up
to the launch of that WordPress blog, GRU officers logged into a
Moscow-based server used and managed by Unit 74455 and searched for a
number of specific words and phrases in English, including `some
hundred sheets,' `illuminati,' and `worldwide known.' Approximately 2
hours after the last of those searches, Guccifer 2.0 published its
first post, attributing the DNC server hack to a lone Romanian hacker
and using several of the unique English words and phrases that the GRU
officers had searched for that day.

``That same day, June 15, 2016, the GRU also used the Guccifer 2.0
WordPress blog to begin releasing to the public documents stolen from
the DNC and DCCC computer networks. The Guccifer 2.0 persona ultimately
released thousands of documents stolen from the DNC and DCCC in a
series of blog posts between June 15, 2016, and October 18, 2016.
``Released documents included opposition research performed by the
DNC (including a memorandum analyzing potential criticisms of candidate
Trump), internal policy documents (such as recommendations on how to
address politically sensitive issues), analyses of specific
congressional races, and fundraising documents. Releases were organized
around thematic issues, such as specific States (e.g., Florida and
Pennsylvania) that were perceived as competitive in the 2016 U.S.
Presidential election.''
That is volume I, pages 42 and 43.
This is now volume I, pages 49 and 50.
``Unit 26165 officers also hacked into a DNC account hosted on a
cloud-computing service--redacted. On September 20, 2016, the GRU began
to generate copies of the DNC data using--redacted--function designed
to allow users to produce backups of databases (referred to--redacted--
as `snapshots'). The GRU then stole those snapshots by moving them to--
redacted--account that they controlled; from there, the copies were
moved to GRU-controlled computers. The GRU stole approximately 300
gigabytes of data from the DNC cloud-based account.''
That was volume I, pages 49 and 50.
This is volume I, page 50.
``In addition to targeting individuals involved in the Clinton
campaign, GRU officers also targeted individuals and entities involved
in the administration of the elections. Victims included U.S. State and
local entities, such as State boards of elections (SBOEs), secretaries
of state, and county governments, as well as individuals who worked for
those entities. The GRU also targeted private technology firms
responsible for manufacturing and administering election-related
software and hardware, such as voter registration software and
electronic polling stations.''

{time} 1700

``The GRU continued to target these victims through the elections in
November 2016. While the investigation identified evidence that the GRU
targeted these individuals and entities, the office did not investigate
further. The office did not, for instance, obtain or examine servers or
other relevant items belonging to these victims. The office understands
that the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the States
have separately investigated that activity.''
This is volume I, pages 51 and 52.
``The Trump campaign showed interest in WikiLeaks' releases of hacked
materials throughout the summer and fall of 2016--redacted.
``On June 12, 2016, Assange claimed in a televised interview to `have
emails relating to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication,' but
provided no additional context.
``In debriefings with the office, former Deputy Campaign Chairman
Rick Gates said that,--redacted. Gates recalled candidate Trump being
generally frustrated that the Clinton emails had not been found.''
``Gates recalled candidate Trump being generally frustrated''--again
it

[[Page H3830]]

says--``that the Clinton emails had not been found.''
Again, that is volume I, pages 51 and 52.
I am hoping that some more Members come down, but if not, I am going
to read just a couple more things.
``Many IRA operations used Facebook accounts created and operated by
its specialists--redacted.
``IRA Facebook groups active during the 2016 campaign covered a range
of political issues and included purported conservative groups (with
names such as `Being Patriotic,' `Stop All Immigrants,' `Secured
Borders,' and `Tea Party News,'), purported Black social justice groups
('Black Matters,' `Blacktivist,' and `Don't Shoot Us'), LGBTQ groups
('LGBT United'), and religious groups ('United Muslims of America.')
``Throughout 2016, IRA accounts published an increasing number of
materials supporting the Trump campaign and opposing the Clinton
campaign. For example, on May 31, 2016, the operational account `Matt
Skiber' began to privately message dozens of pro-Trump Facebook groups
asking them to help plan a `pro-Trump rally near Trump Tower.'
``To reach larger U.S. audiences, the IRA purchased advertisements
from Facebook that promoted the IRA groups on the news feeds of U.S.
audience members. According to Facebook, the IRA purchased over 3,500
advertisements and the expenditures totaled approximately $100,000.
``During the U.S. Presidential campaign, many IRA-purchased
advertisements explicitly supported or opposed a Presidential candidate
or promoted U.S. rallies organized by the IRA (discussed below). As
early as March 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements that overtly
opposed the Clinton campaign. For example, on March 18, 2016, the IRA
purchased an advertisement depicting candidate Clinton and a caption
that read in part, `If one day God lets this liar enter the White House
as a President--that day would be a real national tragedy.' ''
That was a quote from the ad that they paid for.
``Similarly, on April 6, 2016, the
IRA purchased advertisements for
its account `Black Matters' calling for a `flash mob' of U.S. persons
to `take a photo with #HillaryClintonForPrison2016 or #noHillary2016.'
IRA-purchased advertisements featuring Clinton were, with very few
exceptions, negative.''
Again, this is a Russian agency, Russian corporation.
``IRA-purchased advertisements referencing candidate Trump largely
supported his campaign. The first known IRA advertisement explicitly
endorsing the Trump campaign was purchased on April 19, 2016. The IRA
bought an advertisement for its Instagram account `Tea Party News'
asking U.S. persons to help them `make a patriotic team of young Trump
supporters' ''--I will say that again: ``make a patriotic team of young
Trump supporters''--``by uploading photos with the hashtag #KIDS4TRUMP.
In subsequent months, the IRA purchased dozens of advertisements
supporting the Trump campaign, predominantly through the Facebook
groups `Being Patriotic', `Stop All Invaders' and `Secured Borders.'
``Collectively, the IRA's social media accounts reached tens of
millions of U.S. persons. Individual IRA social media accounts
attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. For example, at the time
they were deactivated by Facebook in mid-2017, the IRA's `United
Muslims of America' Facebook group had over 300,000 followers, the
`Don't Shoot Us' Facebook group had over 250,000 followers, the `Being
Patriotic' Facebook group had over 200,000 followers, and the `Secured
Borders' Facebook group had over 130,000 followers. According to
Facebook, in total the IRA-controlled accounts made over 80,000 posts
before their deactivation in August 2017, and these posts reached at
least 29 million U.S. persons and `may have reached an estimated 126
million people.' ''
That is Volume I, pages 24 to 26.
Madam Speaker, I am going to yield back my time.
I think it is worth people taking a look at the Mueller report. You
can get it in book form. You can also download it for free. It can be
downloaded for free from--I think it is the Justice Department, isn't
it? The Justice Department website.
I think, seeing the extent and reading the words that talk about the
extent of Russian interference in our elections is really important,
especially as we head into a new election cycle where Americans want to
have confidence that their vote really matters, that the messages that
they are getting are legitimate ones from inside the United States of
America, and that Russian or any other foreign influence is not using
the internet, using names that are supposed to sound like they are
American organizations and American websites and American Facebook
pages.
I think it is very important for people to learn about that. It is
worth the read.
Actually, if you consider all the redactions, it is not as long a
read as you might think. And then all of us would be informed.
About 3 percent of Americans have read the Mueller report, and I
would certainly encourage more.

One of our colleagues, Mary Gay Scanlon, I know, is going to begin at
noon tomorrow with a full reading. It is going to be done in one of the
House rooms here, upstairs in the Rules Committee, a reading of the
Mueller report.
Otherwise, I think people have misguided information about what is in
it and the idea that there is really nothing at all that is important.
Those Americans who are interested in the sanctity of our elections,
I would very much encourage. You could even watch the reading that is
going on starting at noon tomorrow of the full Mueller report. And
consider the threat to our elections and that we have to do everything
we can to make sure that there is no outside interference.
Madam Speaker, with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

____________________