Title: Russia, Trump, and the 2016 U.S. Election
Headings: Russia, Trump, and the 2016 U.S. Election
Russia, Trump, and the 2016 U.S. Election
Introduction
Who accuses Russia of interfering in the election?
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What measures is Russia accused of taking?
What are U.S. authorities investigating?
Did the Trump campaign conspire with Russia?
What results have the various investigations produced thus far?
When will the investigations end?
Can the president fire Mueller?
Can the president be impeached as a result of the investigations?
Timeline

Content: More on: Russia
Influence Campaigns and Disinformation
Elections and Voting
Donald Trump
United States
What measures is Russia accused of taking? The Russian effort involved overt activities by government agencies, state-backed media, and paid internet “trolls,” as well as covert operations, including illicit cyber activities conducted by intelligence agents. The Russian government used state-funded media outlets, including the website and radio broadcaster Sputnik and television network Russia Today (RT), to disadvantage the Clinton presidential campaign, the 2017 U.S. intelligence report said. RT’s portrayal of Clinton during the run-up to the election, it found, “was consistently negative and focused on her leaked emails and accused her of corruption, poor physical and mental health, and ties to Islamic extremism.” Both Sputnik and RT produce media in several languages, including English, for international audiences. Russia also took its influence campaign to highly trafficked social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. A Russian entity with links to the Kremlin known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) is reported to have hired hundreds of “trolls” to post false news stories and socially divisive content on these and other platforms. Facebook, for instance, said the IRA posted content that reached more than 140 million of its users. The U.S. special counsel’s indictment alleged that a collection of Russian individuals and companies tied to the IRA waged a well-resourced campaign of “information warfare” against the United States beginning in 2014.