DISINFO: Russiagate has dominated main US media since the 2016 despite lack of evidence to support alleged Russian interference
SUMMARY
Russiagate has dominated the front pages of the main US media since the 2016 elections and continues to be used as a “bogeyman” by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, despite the lack of any evidence to support alleged Russian interference in these elections.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. In this case, the message appeared in Sputnik in the context of Facebook's announcement to label state-controlled media - such as Sputnik itself. Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election is a well-documented fact. Robert Mueller's investigation concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 elections. Mueller’s report maintains that “the investigation did not establishthat members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities”. Nevertheless, it states that Russian interference activities did take place. The Mueller report of March 2019 contains many details about how Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, both by using social media to influence American voters with disinformation and by hacking into the Clinton campaign’s computers. By the time the Mueller report was published, Russian meddling in the 2016 poll had been established by the US intelligence community. The Mueller report itself concluded that Moscow had carried out this effort "in sweeping and systematic fashion" (p. 1). Read here similar cases claiming that charges of Russian meddling in US elections collapsed after release of Mueller report and that Mueller report contains no evidence of Russian meddling in 2016 US election.