The Mueller Report

Floor Speech

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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.''

``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 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.

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