More than 1,000 people were hired by Russia to produce fake news about Hillary Clinton in swing states during the US presidential election, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has claimed.

Speaking at a press conference, Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the committee, said there had been reports of "internet trolls" working in key swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to influence the election through "fake news". Crucially, President Trump won all of those states. </s> More than 1,000 people were hired by Russia to produce fake news about Hillary Clinton in swing states during the US presidential election, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has claimed.

Speaking at a press conference, Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the committee, said there had been reports of "internet trolls" working in key swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to influence the election through "fake news". Crucially, President Trump won all of those states.

Warner, appearing at the media briefing with Senate Intelligence Committee chair Senator Richard Burr, said, in comments carried by The Independent: "We know about the hacking, and selective leaks, but what really concerns me as a former tech guy is at least some reports, and we've got to get to the bottom of this, that there were upwards of 1,000 internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers, which are then called botnets, that can then generate news down to specific areas."

Suspicions around Russia's alleged involvement in the US presidential election arose in October 2016 after the emails of the Democratic National Committee were hacked – with a leaked report from the CIA in December 2016 stating the hacking was intended to produce a Trump election victory.

The US intelligence community said, in a report released on 6 January 2016, that they believe Russia's intention was to influence the election in favour of Trump and that the order to do so came from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Memos compiled by a former MI6 agent also claim members of Trump's camp colluded with Russia – with an investigation into the Kremlin's alleged involvement in the election ongoing.

Warner, whose committee is responsible for investigating the alleged interference by Russia, added: "It's been reported to me, and we've got to find this out, whether they were able to affect specific areas in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, where you would not have been receiving [news] off of whoever your vendor might have been, Trump versus Clinton, during the waning days of the election, but instead, 'Clinton is sick', or 'Clinton is taking money from whoever for some source' – fake news.

"An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hijack the most critical democratic process, the election of a president, and, in that process, decided to favour one candidate over another." </s> SECURITY RESEARCHERS believe they have found a smoking gun that Russian agents had been meddling with Hillary Clinton's emails in the run-up to the US elections.

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Mark Warner also believes it has evidence that 1,000 operatives in the employ of the Kremlin wrote anti-Clinton 'fake news' to derail the campaign.

These findings are not binding proof but will be submitted as part of the official investigation into the 2016 Elections.

A group of hackers working for Russian Military Intelligence sent a total of 19,315 malicious links to 6,730 people between March 2015 and May 2016 - before the election battle officially began.

The comedy aspect to all this comes with the rather slapdash methods employed by the hackers, who used bit.ly links and kept their profiles public, making the evidence pretty easy to gather.

Motherboard reports that the spear phishing email campaign, which mimicked a Google log-in screen, resulted in 470 marks giving away their passwords, though it's not thought that Clinton herself was amongst them. SecureWorks warns, though, that they only counted clicks made on the same day that the mail was sent, meaning that the actual figure could be much higher.

These hacks formed the basis of the email leaks that dogged Clinton during her campaign. Guccifer 2.0, a hacker accused of being a front for the Russian hacking community prepared a statement for the US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in which he said: "The publicly available evidence that implicates Russian intelligence agencies in the 2016 active measures campaign is extraordinarily strong.

"The DNC hack can be compared to a carefully executed physical break-in in which the intruders used uniquely identical listening devices; uniquely identical envelopes to carry the stolen files past security; and uniquely identical getaway vehicles."

Russia has consistently denied involvement in manipulating the US election but there has been a distinct stench of burning from Putin's trousers, which may or may not lead to full combustion. µ </s> The Kremlin paid an army of more than 1,000 people to create fake anti-Hillary Clinton news stories targeting key swing states, the leading Democrat on the committee looking into alleged Russian interference in the US election has said.

Senator Mark Warner, the Democrat ranking member, and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Republican Senator Richard Burr, appeared together at a press conference to give an update on the investigation ahead of the first witnesses appearing today.

Mr Warner said: “We know about the hacking, and selective leaks, but what really concerns me as a former tech guy is at least some reports – and we’ve got to get to the bottom of this – that there were upwards of a thousand internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect taking over a series of computers which are then called botnets, that can then generate news down to specific areas.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

“It’s been reported to me, and we’ve got to find this out, whether they were able to affect specific areas in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, where you would not have been receiving off of whoever your vendor might have been, Trump versus Clinton, during the waning days of the election, but instead, ‘Clinton is sick’, or ‘Clinton is taking money from whoever for some source’ … fake news.

“An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hi-jack the most critical democratic process, the election of a President, and in that process, decided to favour one candidate over another.”

The key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which Mr Warner named all fell narrowly - and unexpectedly - to Donald Trump.

Shape Created with Sketch. The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued 1/9 Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images 2/9 Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty 3/9 Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. 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The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images 9/9 Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters 1/9 Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images 2/9 Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty 3/9 Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images 4/9 Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images 5/9 Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images 6/9 Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images 7/9 Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP 8/9 Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images 9/9 Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The Senate Committee will examine whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with the Russians to hire the army of trolls.

Mr Warner and Mr Burr were keen to stress they were unified in the investigation, in spite of reported in-fighting along political lines.

Mr Burr said he did not want to “take snapshots” of where the investigation stood but hinted the committee had spoken to Ret Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Mr Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence who stepped down from his post after ties to foreign governments were revealed.

A parallel investigation is running in the lower House of Representatives, but this has been marred by calls for chairman Devin Nunes to step down following allegations he is co-operating with the White House.

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A CBS poll revealed half of Americans now believe the Russians interfered with the election to help Mr Trump, while 10 per cent believe there was Russian interference but that it was not specifically designed to benefit the tycoon.

Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan, said the US had a responsibility to the rest of the world to get to the bottom of the alleged Russian interference.

“They’re doing it to other countries right now," he said.

"We all knew this before the election, we all knew Russia was trying to meddle with our election, and we already know right now they’re trying to do it with other countries.”

Seven staffers are probing Mr Trump’s alleged links to Russia and said his son-in-law Jared Kushner had agreed to be interviewed by the Senate committee, although it is not known if he will appear under oath or on camera.

Journalist Adam Chen, now a staff writer at the New Yorker but a freelancer when he investigated alleged interference in the US election, claimed in a podcast with Longform that a large number of Russian trolls were now churning out support for Mr Trump

“I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what's going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff," he said.

A total of 20 individuals have been asked to appear before the committee members for private interviews, but no names apart from Mr Kushner’s were confirmed during the press conference. </s> The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked top tech companies Google, Facebook and Twitter to testify about Russian interference in United States politics, a Senate aide confirmed on Wednesday.

The three internet and online social media giants are expected to appear on November 1 in an open hearing on the rising evidence that they were covertly manipulated in a campaign to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

Before that they could also testify in the House Intelligence Committee: Representatives Mike Conaway and Adam Schiff, who lead the committee’s Russia probe, announced late Wednesday they too had invited representatives of technology firms to testify on Russian manipulation.

“Congress and the American people need to hear this important information directly from these companies,” they said.

Facebook recently revealed that for just $100,000, apparent Russia-linked buyers placed some 3,000 advertisements on its pages last year that appeared aimed at influencing the election.

Facebook has turned the details of those ads over to investigators. According to reports, the ads sought to boost the Democratic and Republican rivals of then-election frontrunner Hillary Clinton, as well as to sow discord among Americans in ways that would damage Clinton’s voter base.

“The vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn’t specifically reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate,” Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said early this month.

“Rather, 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.”

Google, a unit of Alphabet, has said it was not used in the alleged Russian campaign to steer the US election.

But according to Buzzfeed, its automated ad-targeting system lets advertisers direct ads to people using racist and anti-Semitic search terms.

Twitter meanwhile has been shown to be a dense thicket of easily faked accounts and news items that allowed alleged Russian operatives to pump out politically divisive and anti-Clinton tweets. </s> President Donald Trump says his election campaign "did nothing wrong" as the FBI brought charges against 13 Russians for alleged election meddling.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller also named three companies in the indictment - seen as a major development his continuing probe into the 2016 poll.

Three of the people named have also been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five have been accused of aggravated identity theft.

Russia denies trying to sway the poll.

In a tweet on Friday evening, Mr Trump repeated that there had been "no collusion" between his campaign and Russia.

However, he did appear to concede that Russia had sought to influence the election. The president has previously disputed US intelligence agency assessments suggesting this.
• Seven key takeaways from the indictments

What does the indictment say?

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there was no allegation that any American was "a knowing participant in this illegal activity" nor was it alleged that the meddling altered the election outcome.

The 37-page indictment says a group of Russians:
• Posed as Americans, and opened financial accounts in their name
• Purchased US server space in an effort to hide their Russian affiliation
• Organised and promoted political rallies within the United States
• Posted political messages on social media accounts that impersonated real US citizens
• Received money from clients to post on US social media sites
• Created themed groups on social media on hot-button issues, particularly on Facebook and Instagram
• Operated with a monthly budget of as much as $1.25m (£890,000)
• Financed the building of a cage large enough to hold an actress portraying Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform

The indictment says those involved systematically monitored the success of their internet posts.
• The tactics of the Russian 'troll farm'

It also says those named in the indictment had visited the US posing as American citizens and had begun discussing how to affect the election as early as 2014.

"By 2016, defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online persons to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election," the indictment continues.

"They engaged in operations primarily to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump."

One of the companies targeted is the Internet Research Agency, based in St Petersburg, which the indictment said "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 US presidential election".

"Thirteen people interfered with the US elections?" said Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. "Thirteen against the billion-dollar budgets of the security services? Against espionage and counter-espionage, against new developments and technologies? Absurd? Yes."

One of the men named in the indictment - Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as "Putin's chef", denied election tampering.

"The Americans are very impressionable people, they see what they want to see," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Ria Novosti on Friday. "I have great respect for them. I'm not at all upset that I'm on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him."

Mr Prigozhin has been a friend of Mr Putin since the 1990s. He has built up a business empire and has been accused of using companies to diffuse pro-Kremlin opinions via fake internet identities.

On Friday, Robert Mueller's team released a slate of indictments that lays bare what it asserts is the full shape of the Russian meddling apparatus.

And what an apparatus it was. In the run-up to the US presidential election "Project Lakhta", as it was called, had an operating budget of more than $1m a month.

Russians associated with the organisation travelled to the US, posed as Americans and gathered information on where best to target its attempts to "sow discord" in the US political process. Swing states were identified and efforts, according to the indictment, were made to boost the prospects of Republican Donald Trump and undermine Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Although the indictment does not suggest collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, it says the meddling effort may have been aided by "unwitting individuals" associated with the Republican nominee.

The White House may breathe a sigh of relief with that particular revelation. But the heat is increasing, and the investigation isn't over yet. At the very least, if Mr Mueller's allegations hold up in court, it will become increasingly difficult for the president to argue that Russian meddling on his behalf is an unsubstantiated hoax.

What do the social media companies say?

Politicians from both major parties have responded with calls for social media companies to do more to prevent political interference via their platforms.

Facebook said in a statement that it had worked "proactively" with Mr Mueller's investigation, but admitted that it had "more to do to prevent further attacks".

Twitter said the activities were "intolerable" and that it was working with investigators, but that "tech companies cannot defeat this novel, shared threat alone".

What is the investigation about?

US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway the 2016 presidential election in favour of Mr Trump.

In May last year, Mr Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate whether anyone from his campaign colluded in the effort.

As part of the inquiry, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been charged with conspiring to defraud the US in his dealings with Ukraine, and conspiracy to launder money.

And another charge disclosed on Friday accuses him of submitting false information to obtain a mortgage on a Washington property.

A business associate of Mr Manafort's, Rick Gates, was also charged with conspiracy to launder money. A third adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

In December, Mr Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to making false statements about a meeting he had with the Russian ambassador in 2016.

This week President Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was interviewed by Mr Mueller.

Mr Trump has been accused by opponents of trying to interfere with the investigation, which he denies. </s> The Russian government used "thousands" of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.

Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat.

"This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America," Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used "thousands of paid internet trolls" and bots to spread disinformation on social media.

The groups spreading disinformation appeared to target specific swing states in the weeks leading up to the U.S. election, Warner said. He questioned whether Russian operatives would have that level of U.S. elections expertise without outside help.

Most members of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed little doubt that Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election through hacking and the spread of disinformation. Senators from both parties promised to investigate alleged ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian disinformation and hacking efforts.

Warner addressed repeated suggestions by Trump that Russian interference in the election is "fake news."

"This is not innuendo or false allegations," Warner said. "This is not fake news, this is actually what happened to us."

Clinton wasn't the only presidential candidate targeted by Russia, said Clint Watts, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute Program on National Security. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, appears to have been targeted during the Republican primary because of his tough stance on Russia, Watts said.

Rubio, a member of the Intelligence Committee, confirmed during the hearing that his campaign staffers were targeted last July, after he dropped out of the presidential race, by a hacker using a Russia IP address. Former members of his presidential campaign staff were again targeted on Tuesday by an attempted hack coming from Russia, he said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin again denied the allegations that Russia targeted the U.S. election. The allegations are "fictional, illusory and provocations, lies," Putin said during the annual Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia.

Witnesses told senators that Russia has been waging disinformation campaigns in the West for decades.

The purpose of the recent Russian disinformation campaign is to stir up unrest in Western democracies, to shake their citizens' faith in their governments and traditional media, and ultimately, to break up NATO and the European Union, said Eugene Rumer, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Russian disinformation and hacking campaigns were "not a crisis, not something that will pass soon," Rumer added. "It is the new normal. We will see Russia relying on this toolkit in the months and years to come."

While Russian disinformation campaigns are nothing new, Russian hackers seemed to change their tactics in mid-2014, said Kevin Mandia, CEO of cybersecurity company FireEye. Instead of covering their tracks, they continued their hacking campaigns even after being identified by security researchers, he said.

The Russian hackers also began "operating at a scale and scope where you could easily detect them," Mandia added.

During the U.S. election, Russia operatives "left behind more clues and more traces than ever before," added Thomas Rid, a professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.

The Russian disinformation campaign goes even beyond elections, Watts said. An April 2014 petition on the U.S. White House website demanded the country give Alaska back to Russia.

The petition generated 39,000 signatures in a short time, with many signatures appearing to come from bots used to push Russian propaganda months earlier, Watts said.

Soviet-era disinformation tactics "have been reborn and updated for the modern Russian regime in the digital age," he said. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Russians recruited 'real Americans' as part of 'information warfare'

Thirteen Russians have been charged with interfering in the US 2016 election, in a major development in the FBI investigation.

Three of those named have also been accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five have been accused of aggravated identity theft.

The charges were made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian meddling.

Three Russian companies are also named in the indictment.

One of them is the Internet Research Agency, based in St Petersburg, which the 37-page indictment said "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 US presidential election".

Speaking at a news conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there was no allegation that any American was "a knowing participant in this illegal activity" nor was it alleged that the meddling altered the election outcome.

Mr Trump was briefed on the indictment earlier on Friday, the White House said.

The president later tweeted that his campaign had done "nothing wrong" and again denied colluding with Russia.

He also appeared to acknowledge Russian election meddling - something which he has in the past cast doubt on despite US intelligence agency assessments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials have repeatedly denied interfering in the US presidential election.

What does the indictment say?

It says a group of Russians:

Posed as Americans, and opened financial accounts in their name

Spent thousands of dollars a month buying political advertising

Purchased US server space in an effort to hide their Russian affiliation

Organised and promoted political rallies within the United States

Posted political messages on social media accounts that impersonated real US citizens

Promoted information that disparaged Hillary Clinton

Received money from clients to post on US social media sites

Created themed groups on social media on hot-button issues, particularly on Facebook and Instagram

Operated with a monthly budget of as much as $1.25m (£890,000)

Financed the building of a cage large enough to hold an actress portraying Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform

The indictment says those involved systematically monitored the success of their internet posts.

It also says those named in the indictment had visited the US posing as American citizens and had begun discussing how to affect the election as early as 2014.

"By 2016, defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online persons to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election," the indictment continues.

"They engaged in operations primarily to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump."

How has Russia reacted?

It called the allegations "absurd".

"Thirteen people interfered with the US elections?" said Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. "Thirteen against the billion-dollar budgets of the security services? Against espionage and counter-espionage, against new developments and technologies? Absurd? Yes."

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef", has denied election tampering

One of the men named in the indictment - Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as "Putin's chef", denied election tampering.

"The Americans are very impressionable people, they see what they want to see," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Ria Novosti on Friday. "I have great respect for them. I'm not at all upset that I'm on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him."

Mr Prigozhin has been a friend of Mr Putin since the 1990s. He has built up a business empire and has been accused of using companies to diffuse pro-Kremlin opinions via fake internet identities.

Heat of investigation is increasing

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

On Friday, Robert Mueller's team released a slate of indictments that lays bare what it asserts is the full shape of the Russian meddling apparatus.

And what an apparatus it was. In the run-up to the US presidential election "Project Lakhta", as it was called, had an operating budget of more than $1m a month.

Russians associated with the organisation travelled to the US, posed as Americans and gathered information on where best to target its attempts to "sow discord" in the US political process. Swing states were identified and efforts, according to the indictment, were made to boost the prospects of Republican Donald Trump and undermine Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Although the indictment does not suggest collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, it says the meddling effort may have been aided by "unwitting individuals" associated with the Republican nominee.

The White House may breathe a sigh of relief with that particular revelation. But the heat is increasing, and the investigation isn't over yet. At the very least, if Mr Mueller's allegations hold up in court, it will become increasingly difficult for the president to argue that Russian meddling on his behalf is an unsubstantiated hoax.

Read Anthony's key takeaways

What do the social media companies say?

Politicians from both major parties have responded with calls for social media companies to do more to prevent political interference via their platforms.

Facebook said in a statement that it had worked "proactively" with Mr Mueller's investigation, but admitted that it had "more to do to prevent further attacks".

Twitter said the activities were "intolerable" and that it was working with investigators, but that "tech companies cannot defeat this novel, shared threat alone".

What is the investigation about?

US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway the 2016 presidential election in favour of Mr Trump.

In May last year, Mr Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate whether anyone from his campaign colluded in the effort.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption All you need to know about the Trump-Russia investigation

As part of the inquiry, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been charged with conspiring to defraud the US in his dealings with Ukraine, and conspiracy to launder money.

A business associate of his, Rick Gates, was also charged with conspiracy to launder money. A third adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

This week President Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was interviewed by Mr Mueller.

Mr Trump has been accused by opponents of trying to interfere with the investigation, which he denies. </s> The company said that since briefing Congress in November, it's identified an additional 13,512 Russian-linked bot accounts that tweeted around the election, bringing the total to 50,258. | REUTERS Twitter: More than 677,000 U.S. users engaged with Russian troll accounts

Twitter said Friday it's notifying 677,775 people in the U.S. who either followed, retweeted or liked a tweet from accounts of the Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency during the 2016 election period.

The company also said that since briefing Congress in November, it's identified an additional 13,512 Russian-linked bot accounts that tweeted around the election, bringing the total to 50,258.

Story Continued Below

"Any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we're committed to working on this important issue," Twitter wrote in a blog post. The company said it will share the account handles with congressional investigators looking at Russian interference in the election.

Morning Tech Technology news from Washington and Silicon Valley — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Twitter offered several examples of Internet Research Agency content, including tweets with pro-Donald Trump images and slogans.

An example of an Internet Research Agency tweet. | Twitter

Friday's disclosure — 14 months after the 2016 election — is the latest sign that social media companies are still coming to grips with the extent of Russian activity on their platforms during the campaign.

Intelligence experts, congressional investigators and others have concluded that Russian elements exploited Twitter and Facebook to distribute propaganda and misinformation during the 2016 campaign — much of it focused on damaging the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Twitter on Friday also laid out its plans for the 2018 midterm elections, including verifying major party candidates, communicating with federal and state election officials, applying anti-spam technology against "networks of malicious automation targeting election-related matters," and monitoring trends and spikes in conversation for "potential manipulation activity."

Facebook unveiled a portal last month to allow users to learn of any Facebook or Instagram contact they may have had with Russian internet trolls between January 2015 and August 2017. Facebook has said that Russian-linked posts were viewed by up to 126 million people during that period.

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A Congressional witness states that Russia hired 1,000 people to create anti-Clinton 'fake news' in key U.S. states during the election.