A federal grand jury's indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian companies for alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election mentions several Texas connections.
Special counsel Robert Mueller announced the grand jury's decision Friday. The indictment claims the defendants allegedly worked to discredit then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign while boosting Republican Donald Trump.
The indictment names a Facebook page called "Heart of Texas," which has since been taken down. It alleges the page was aimed at Texans, but started by Russians.
"I believe it was the second most popular Russian Facebook page we've seen. It has about a quarter of a million followers," said Casey Michel, a contributor to the progressive online news site, Think Progress.
In October, Michel wrote an article for The Washington Post that outlined how Russians pretended to be Texans on Facebook, and a lot of real Texans believed it.
"It has kind of a two-dimensional understanding of what Texas was," Michel said of the "Heart of Texas" page. "Everyone drove big trucks, drinks Dr Pepper at all hours, and hated vegetarians."
He said the "Heart of Texas" stirred the pot of discontent, organizing anti-Islamic rallies in cities like Houston.
The president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, a succession group, told NBC 5 a volunteer from "Heart of Texas" reached out to try to include them in a rally, but something seemed "off" and the TNM declined.
Source: Nbcdfw News
Friday, 16 February 2018
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