The long-awaited, redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report released Thursday refers to several Florida connections to Russia’s attempt to interfere with the U.S. presidential election — including a reference to Broward County.
New information is sparse in relevant sections of the report, which blacks out some material — including details about some of the people and events related to Florida.
“As you will see, most of the redactions were compelled by the need to prevent harm to ongoing matters and to comply with court orders prohibiting the public disclosure of information bearing upon ongoing investigations and criminal cases, such as the IRA case and the Roger Stone case,” Attorney General William Barr said at a Washington, D.C., briefing.
The IRA refers to the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia. The IRA orchestrated meddling in the campaign and is close to Russian intelligence and President Vladimir Putin.
Russians target Florida
The IRA was active in Florida, the Muller report said.
Donald Trump Jr. retweeted posts from the IRA-controlled Twitter account @TEN_GOP, including this declaration: “BREAKING: #VoterFraud by counting tens of thousands of ineligible mail in Hillary votes being reported in Broward County, Florida.”
The IRA also organized rallies supporting Trump or opposing Hillary Clinton, including “a series of pro-Trump rallies in Florida in August 2016.”
The Florida rallies “drew the attention of the Trump Campaign, which posted about the Miami rally on candidate Trump’s Facebook account.”
“THANK YOU for your support Miami!” Trump’s Facebook post said about “TRUMP SIGN WAVING DAY” in Miami on Aug. 20, 2016.
An IRA Facebook account using the name “Matt Skiber” wrote to a tea party activist that “Mr. Trump posted about our event in Miami! This is great!” The IRA account included a screenshot of candidate Trump’s Facebook account.
Roger Stone
Roger Stone, the Fort Lauderdale resident who is a longtime informal adviser to President Donald Trump, was indicted in January on seven counts of obstruction, false statements and witness tampering.
At the center of the charges against Stone are his conversations involving WikiLeaks, which released internal Democratic Party emails that were hacked by Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign. According to prosecutors, Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee about those communications and tried to persuade another person to provide false testimony.