Facebook has provided Congress with details about the ads purchased by Russia-linked accounts during last year's campaign.

"We are actively working with the US government on its ongoing investigations into Russian interference," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post today. "We have been investigating this for many months, and for a while we had found no evidence of fake accounts linked to Russia running ads. When we recently uncovered this activity, we provided that information to the special counsel. We also briefed Congress—and this morning I directed our team to provide the ads we've found to Congress as well."

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Facebook initially shared details about the ads with former FBI director Robert Mueller's special counsel, but did not provide Congress with as much data, citing privacy concerns.

The decision to provide Congress with that data came after "an extensive legal and policy review," Elliot Schrage, VP of Policy and Communications at Facebook, said in a separate post. But the social network decided to turn over the ads because "this is an extraordinary investigation — one that raises questions that go to the integrity of the US elections."

Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member on the Senate committee investigating Russian interference, tweeted that Facebook's decision is an "important & absolutely necessary first step. The American people deserve to know the truth about Russia's interference in the 2016 election."

Facebook earlier this month said 470 "inauthentic" accounts and Pages that "likely operated out of Russia" spent approximately $100,000 between June 2015 and May 2017 on 3,000 Facebook ads. Those ads were focused on "amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum—touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights."

Facebook's investigation can only dig so deep, Schrage continued. To really find out what happened in the 2016 election requires "an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries," he said.

"We may find more, and if we do, we will continue to work with the government," Zuckerberg said. "We are looking into foreign actors, including additional Russian groups and other former Soviet states, as well as organizations like the campaigns, to further our understanding of how they used our tools. These investigations will take some time, but we will continue our thorough review."

Zuckerberg said he expects officials "to publish its findings when their investigation is complete."

As for what Facebook can do at this point, Zuckerberg pledged to "bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency" regarding political ads.

In the next few months, Facebook users will be able to visit the Page of an advertiser to see what other ads they've produced, as advertisers can target specific people with certain types of ads.

Meanwhile, Facebook will also "strengthen" its ad review process for political ads. "Most ads are bought programmatically through our apps and website without the advertiser ever speaking to anyone at Facebook. That's what happened here," Zuckerberg said, regarding the Russia ad buys. "But even without our employees involved in the sales, we can do better."

That includes adding 250 more people to Facebook's election integrity team, expanding partnerships with election commissions, and sharing more threat information with other tech and security companies. "It's almost certain that any actor trying to misuse Facebook will also be trying to abuse other internet platforms too," according to Zuckerberg.

He acknowledged that it will likely be impossible to "to catch all bad content in our system."

He continued, "We don't check what people say before they say it, and frankly, I don't think our society should want us to. Freedom means you don't have to ask permission first, and that by default you can say what you want. If you break our community standards or the law, then you're going to face consequences afterwards. We won't catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere."

This weekend, Germans head to the polls for an election many thought Russia would also try to disrupt. Thus far, however, Facebook has "not yet found a similar type of effort in Germany," Zuckerberg wrote.

Zuckerberg didn't really touch on fake news in his post, though Schrage said fake accounts like the ones that purchased ads often distribute deceptive material, such as false news, hoaxes, and misinformation. In the wake of last year's election, Zuckerberg asserted that "the idea that fake news on Facebook...influenced the election in any way… is a pretty crazy idea." Clearly, his view on that has evolved somewhat in the last year. </s> Facebook will share the content and related information of the more than 3,000 ads it sold to Russian-linked accounts with the House and Senate intelligence committees, the company said Thursday.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a Facebook Live event announced on short notice Thursday afternoon to discuss the decision.

Facebook has already handed over copies of the ads and information about the relevant accounts to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

But it had not yet given the ads to Congress, despite having told congressional investigators more than two weeks ago that it had sold more than 3,000 ads to accounts linked to a Russian troll farm between June 2015 and May 2017.

In a blog post published Thursday afternoon, Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said, “We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election.”

“That is an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries — and we want to do our part,” the post read. “Congress is best placed to use the information we and others provide to inform the public comprehensively and completely.”

“We believe the public deserves a full accounting of what happened in the 2016 election, and we’ve concluded that sharing the ads we’ve discovered, in a manner that is consistent with our obligations to protect user information, can help.” </s> Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday Facebook will turn over the contents of 3,000 ads purchased by a Russian agency to Congress.

The ads are being investigated as part of the probe into Russian meddling into the U.S. election.

Facebook has briefed members of Congress and also provided the ads and other information to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation, the company said.

In all, the accounts purchased some 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads didn't specifically reference the election, a candidate or voting, they nevertheless allowed "divisive messages" to be amplified via the social media platform, the company's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said in a statement Sept. 7.

In addition to the 470 accounts that appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos said its investigators also discovered an additional $50,000 in spending via 2,200 ads that "might have originated in Russia," even including ads purchased by accounts with IP addresses in the U.S. but set to Russian in the language settings.

Lawmakers have said they want to know more about the content of the ads pushed out by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency and whether they targeted specific voters or locations in the United States.

Facebook has come under intense pressure since the election to curb the flow of false information. After the election, it updated its advertising policy to say it wouldn't run spots that are "illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news." </s> WASHINGTON. D.C. — has discovered that it sold about $100,000 in political ads to Russian-linked sources over the past two years, and has shared that information with authorities investigating Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election.

The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that Facebook had informed congressional investigators that the ad sales were linked to a Russian “troll” farm known for spreading propaganda. The entity was called the Internet Research Agency.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, wrote in a blog post that “in reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.”

He said that a majority of the ads did not specify any candidate, but “the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”

“One question that has emerged is whether there’s a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook,” he wrote. “These are serious claims and we’ve been reviewing a range of activity on our platform to help understand what happened.”

He outlined a series of steps the company has been taking to detect fake accounts and to detect inauthentic pages. That includes “reducing stories from sources that consistently post clickbait headlines that withhold and exaggerate information.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees are examining Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, and whether any Trump campaign officials coordinated with Russian sources.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to address the spread of so-called “fake news” on the platform during the election. In a May white paper, the company outlined steps that they’re taking to try to limit the promotion of such false information.

Facebook’s revelation could also trigger calls for greater public disclosure of the sources of political spending. Broadcasters are required to disclose records of their political ad sales. </s> Facebook said on Thursday that it would turn over to Congress copies of more than 3,000 ads linked to a shadowy Russian company, for House and Senate committees’ investigations of Kremlin interference in the 2016 election.

The move is an about-face for Facebook, which earlier this month said it had given the ads and other information to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is conducting a criminal investigation of possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign. But Facebook has said it could not give the material to Congress due to privacy concerns.

Most of the ads did not mention Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but focused on immigration, gun control, gay rights and other divisive social issues. They were purchased by 470 fake accounts traced back to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian firm known for using troll accounts to post on news sites.

“After an extensive legal and policy review, today we are announcing that we will also share these ads with congressional investigators,” said Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, in a blog post. “We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election.”

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said that the company was taking steps to provide more transparency about political ads that run on the site and to prevent covert attempts to influence elections. He said Facebook would continue to investigate attempts by Russia and other “foreign actors” to use the site to interfere in other countries’ elections.

“I don't want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy. That's not what we stand for,” Zuckerberg said in a video statement.

Facebook executives had briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month on the Russian-linked ads. But Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, and other lawmakers had criticized the company for refusing to turn over the materials that it had given to Mueller.

Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the Facebook material “should help us better understand what happened, beyond the preliminary briefings we already received.”

He added, “It will be important for the Committee to scrutinize how rigorous Facebook's internal investigation has been, to test its conclusions and to understand why it took as long as it did to discover the Russian sponsored advertisements and what else may yet be uncovered.”

Schiff made clear that Facebook is not be the only company that investigators expect to hear from.

“As we continue our investigation to get to the bottom of Russia’s multifaceted attack on our democratic process,” he said, “I believe it will be necessary to hear directly from Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as others in the tech sector, including in open hearings that will inform the American public.” </s> Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company's findings.

Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian "troll farm" with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said. Most of the ads focused on pumping politically divisive issues such as gun rights and immigration fears, as well as gay rights and racial discrimination.

The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the U.S. election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in January that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election to help elect Trump, including by using paid social media trolls to spread fake news intended to influence public opinion.

Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States - a question some Democrats have been asking for months.

"I get the fact that the Russian intel services could figure out how to manipulate and use the bots. Whether they could know how to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats weren't even aware really raises some questions. I think that's a worthwhile area of inquiry," Sen. Mark Warner, Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a May airing of the podcast Pod Save America. "How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?"

An official familiar with Facebook's internal investigation said the company does not have the ability to determine whether the ads it sold represented any sort of coordination.

The acknowledgment by Facebook follows months of criticism that the social media company served as a platform for the spread of false information before the November election. In a statement posted days after the election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to explore the issue but said that 99 percent of information found on Facebook is authentic and only "a very small amount" is fake or hoaxes. In December, however, the company announced that it would begin flagging articles that had been deemed false or fake, with the assistance of fact-checking organizations.

Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.

Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.

A Facebook official said "there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St. Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm." The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities.

"Our data policy and federal law limit our ability to share user data and content, so we won't be releasing any ads," the official said. The official added that the ads "were directed at people on Facebook who had expressed interest in subjects explored on those pages, such as LGBT community, black social issues, the Second Amendment, and immigration."

Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer, said in a statement that the company is committed to continuing to protect the integrity of its site and improve its ability to track fraudulent accounts. He said Facebook has shut down the accounts that remained active.

"We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," he said.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced technology improvements to detect fake accounts and more recently announced it would no longer allow Facebook pages to advertise if they have a pattern of sharing false news stories. Over the past few months, Stamos said, the company has also taken action to block fake accounts tied to election meddling in France and Germany.

The Internet Research Agency has received attention in the past for its activity.

In 2013, hackers released internal company documents showing it employed 600 people across Russia. Ex-employees who have gone public with their experiences at the company in Internet postings and in media interviews have said their work entailed creating fake Twitter and Facebook accounts and using them to circulate pro-Kremlin propaganda. They said Internet Research Agency employees, for instance, spread derogatory information about Putin critic Boris Nemtsov in the days after his 2015 murder.

In 2015, The New York Times Magazine reported that social media accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency had launched social media campaigns in the United States, including a sophisticated hoax that spread false news of a chemical leak in Louisiana in 2014, apparently to sow chaos and fear.

In its unclassified report in January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Internet Research Agency's "likely financier" is a "close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence."

In May, Time Magazine reported that U.S. intelligence officials had discovered evidence that Russian agents had purchased ads on Facebook to target specific populations with propaganda. A Facebook spokesman told the magazine that the company had no evidence of such buys.

Under federal law and Federal Election Commission regulations, both foreign nationals and foreign governments are prohibited from making contributions or spending money to influence a federal, state or local election in the United States. The ban includes independent expenditures made in connection with an election.

Those banned from such spending include foreign citizens, foreign governments, foreign political parties, foreign corporations, foreign associations and foreign partnerships, according to the FEC. (Permanent residents who hold green cards, however, are not considered foreign nationals.) Violators face civil penalties, as well as criminal prosecution if they are found to have knowingly broken the law.

Andrew Roth and Alice Crites contributed to this report. </s> WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says Facebook should testify as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential election, and that the social media giant "seems to have been less than forthcoming" with Congress.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said Tuesday that committee members agreed the panel should hold a public hearing after it was revealed earlier this month that hundreds of phony Facebook accounts, likely run from Russia, spent about $100,000 on ads aimed at stirring up divisive issues such as gun control and race relations during the 2016 campaign. The panel is one of several in Congress probing Russian interference and any connections to President Trump's campaign.
• None How Russia-linked groups used Facebook to meddle in 2016 election 



"Facebook seems to have been less than forthcoming on potentially how they were used," Burr said, adding that it's "just a question of when, and potentially the scope of what that hearing would be."

Facebook has briefed members of Congress and also provided the ads and other information to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation, the company said. In all, the accounts purchased some 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads didn't specifically reference the election, a candidate or voting, they nevertheless allowed "divisive messages" to be amplified via the social media platform, the company's chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said in a statement Sept. 7.

In addition to the 470 accounts that appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos said its investigators also discovered an additional $50,000 in spending via 2,200 ads that "might have originated in Russia," even including ads purchased by accounts with IP addresses in the U.S. but set to Russian in the language settings.

Lawmakers have said they want to know more about the content of the ads pushed out by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency and whether they targeted specific voters or locations in the United States.

The company has come under intense pressure since the election to curb the flow of false information. After the election, it updated its advertising policy to say it wouldn't run spots that are "illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news."
• None How Facebook and Google served up ads for racists and anti-Semites 



Burr said a hearing could likely involve Twitter and other social media companies as well. He said the panel hasn't yet issued any invitations, but a hearing would be this fall.

Asked if he expected Facebook to be open to a public hearing, Burr said the company has "expressed they don't have anything to hide, so a public hearing would be very appropriate."

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone wouldn't comment on a hearing but said the company "continues to cooperate with the relevant investigative authorities."

CNN reported earlier this week that Facebook turned over the materials after receiving a search warrant.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told CBSN on Sunday that if a warrant was issued for Facebook materials could be the "the biggest news" in the investigation since the raid on Manafort's home in May.

"For the first time here, what we've learned -- assuming that The Wall Street Journal's report about a search warrant is correct -- is that Bob Mueller went to a federal judge and presented evidence and convinced the judge that a crime was committed involving foreign individuals contributing to a political election here in the United States through their actions on Facebook," Mariotti told CBS News' Elaine Quijano.

Mariotti said Mueller would have needed to do two things to secure the search warrant: Prove there's good reason to believe a crime occurred and lay out evidence that the crime existed on Facebook. </s> SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday (Sep 21) Russia-linked ads on the huge social network aimed at inflaming tensions around last year's US presidential election will be given to Congress.

News of the decision came with word that Facebook is cracking down on efforts to use the leading social network to meddle with elections in the US or elsewhere.

"It is a new challenge for internet communities to have to deal with nation states attempting to subvert elections," Zuckerberg said in a live video presentation streamed on his Facebook page. "But, we are committed to rising to the occasion."

Zuckerberg announced a series of steps that would help prevent the manipulation of the social network including more transparency on political ads appearing on Facebook.

The huge social network enables any advertiser, including political operatives, to target specific groups of Facebook users based on demographics, hobbies, age or other characteristics shared at the social network.

Some analysts have argued that so-called "dark ads," the contents of which are not available to the public, could have inflamed tensions and potentially impacted the 2016 election.

Zuckerberg said the new steps would address these concerns.

"We're going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency," he said.

"Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser's page and see the ads they're currently running to any audience on Facebook."

Facebook earlier this month agreed to hand over information about the ads from Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the 2016 election and on Thursday decided to turn over the information to congressional investigators.

"We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election," Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said in a blog post.

An internal Facebook review showed that Russia-linked fake accounts were used to buy ads aimed at exacerbating political clashes ahead of and following the 2016 US presidential election.

Some 470 accounts spent a total of approximately US$100,000 between June 2015 to May 2017 on ads that touted fake or misleading news or drove traffic to pages with such messages, a Facebook official said.

While the amount of money involved was relatively small, enough to buy roughly 3,000 ads, the accounts or pages violated Facebook policies and were shut down, according to Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos.

Most of the ads run by the accounts didn't directly reference the US presidential election, voting, or particular candidates but instead appeared focused on "amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum," according to Stamos.

A core question in the congressional investigation is the extent to which online social networks were manipulated by Russian interests to covertly influence the US election, according to Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat and the ranking member of the House permanent select committee on intelligence.

"The data Facebook will now turn over to the Committee should help us better understand what happened, beyond the preliminary briefings we already received," Schiff said in a released statement.

The committee will also scrutinize how rigorous Facebook's internal investigation and why it took as long as it did to discover the Russian sponsored advertisements, according to Schiff.

Schiff express belief that the committee will want to hear directly from tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Twitter in open hearings.

Along with letting people visit the pages of advertisers to see what kinds of messages they are aiming at others on platform, Facebook will strengthen its ad review process, Zuckerberg said.

Facebook is also ramping up its team devoted to election integrity, and looking to expand partnerships with elections officials and candidates around the world.

Facebook also wants to figure out ways that internet companies can share more information about attempts to interfere with elections, according to Zuckerberg.

"It is important that technology companies collaborate on this because it is almost certain that any actor trying to abuse Facebook will try to abuse other online platforms too," Zuckerberg said. </s> In September 2017, Facebook announced that it had uncovered approximately $100,000 in fraudulent ad spending. This shed light on a little known but influential Russian company known as the Internet Research Agency, purportedly behind the ads that may have helped shape the 2016 U.S. election.

And now, a federal grand jury has indicted 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities accused of violating U.S. law for interfering in U.S. elections, including the Internet Research Agency.

In the indictment, the Internet Research Agency is defined as a "Russian organization engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes."

According to a 2015 New York Times story on the agency, it employs "hundreds of Russians to post pro-Kremlin propaganda online under fake identities." Reports have described the firm as a "troll farm."

Collins Dictionary defines a troll farm as an "organization whose employees or members attempt to create conflict and disruption in an online community by posting deliberately inflammatory or provocative comments."

According to a source familiar with the social network's thinking, Facebook's research links its September findings back to the Internet Research Agency.

In early September, Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos wrote the company "found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia."

Additionally, Facebook said it found approximately $50,000 in "potentially politically related ad spending," was spent on approximately 2,200 ads.

The Internet Research Agency's potential involvement with the fraudulent Facebook ad spending was first reported in September by both The New York Times and The Washington Post.

MORE TROUBLE FOR FACEBOOK AS SEATTLE CLAIMS IT VIOLATED CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW

In depth on the IRA

In an unclassifed report in January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence mentioned the potential involvement by the Internet Research Agency in the 2016 U.S. election.

"A journalist who is a leading expert on the Internet Research Agency claimed that some social media accounts that appear to be tied to Russia’s professional trolls—because they previously were devoted to supporting Russian actions in Ukraine—started to advocate for President-elect Trump as early as December 2015," the report read.

The report also mentioned that the financial backer of the Internet Research Agency may have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The likely financier of the so-called Internet Research Agency of professional trolls located in Saint Petersburg is a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence," it said.

According to a transcript with a former Internet Research Agency employee that has been translated, the trolls are hard at work, leaving their crumbs around the internet.

"It was necessary to write 126 comments under the posts of people who wrote them inside this building," Anton N. (not his real name) told Radio Liberty. "And somewhere around 25 - on the pages of living people, so that someone will pay attention to you. And the [blog] posts needed to write ten. Recently a friend told me that now it is necessary to write twelve [posts]."

FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, TWITTER OPEN UP TO CONGRESS ABOUT RUSSIAN MISINFORMATION

This is not the first time the Internet Research Agency has been in the spotlight.

According to The Washington Post, hackers released internal company records detailing that it employed 600 people in Russia in 2013.

A 2015 BBC article highlighted the Internet Research Agency's involvement during Russia's conflict in the Ukraine.

Eric Feinberg, a founding partner of deep web analysis company GIPEC, told Fox News last year that he was not surprised by Facebook’s discovery. “I am not surprised that nefarious enterprises are using Facebook Advertising to spread fake information since Facebook does little to verify who is signing up for a Facebook Account and who is buying ads," Feinberg wrote via email.

A version of this story originally ran on Sept. 7, 2017. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
Facebook agrees to disclose ads that ran in the U.S. in 2016 from accounts associated with a Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency to United States Congressional investigators. Earlier, this information was provided to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.