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NYT: Rick Gates sought plans to use fake online identities in Trump's 2016 campaign
The Hill ^ | 10/08/18 | MICHAEL BURKE

Posted on 10/08/2018 3:45:09 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, sought proposals from an Israeli company in 2016 to create fake online identities in an effort to aid President Trump's campaign, The New York Times reported Monday.

Gates sought a proposal from a company staffed by former Israeli intelligence officers, Psy-Group, to use fake identities to sway 5,000 Republican National Convention delegates by attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), an opponent of Trump's at the time, according to the Times.

Mark Mazzetti, one of the Times reporters who authored the story, said Monday on CNN that the firm proposed using “40 to 50 people to create thousands of different identities — fake personas on Twitter, Facebook, et cetera.”

“And these would then target … delegates based on a psychological profile that the company built about the delegates — find out what most interested them. So you build a profile and use these avatars, bots, et cetera to spread messages, to try to influence their votes, to try to make sure that they stay on the Trump side,” Mazzetti added.

The Times reported that other proposals from the company included one that featured a plan to help Trump "by using social media to help expose or amplify division among rival campaigns and factions," and another that offered opposition research about Clinton and her allies.

Psy-Group’s owner, Joel Zamel, reportedly met in August 2016 at Trump Tower with Donald Trump, Jr.

There is no evidence that the Trump campaign moved forward with the proposals.

Gates first learned about Psy-Group during a March 2016 meeting in Washington, D.C., with Georgia Birnbaum, a GOP consultant with ties to Israeli government officials, according to the Times.

Birnbaum told the newspaper that Gates “was interested in finding the technology to achieve what they were looking for.”

Following his meeting with Gates, Birnbaum allegedly worked with Psy-Group employees to polish their pitches to the Trump campaign.

Gates, who served as a top aide to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty to two charges — conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to FBI agents — in Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Israeli company’s proposals appear unconnected to Russian interference in the election. However, special counsel investigators have received copies of the proposals and have questioned Psy-Group employees, the Times reported, citing sources familiar with the interviews.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: clintonnonnews; cnn; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; georgiabirnbaum; imaginethat; jamescomey; lisapage; markmazzetti; mediawingofthednc; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; partisanmediashills; peterstrzok; presstitutes; rickgates; robertmueller; russianpropaganda; smearmachine; trump
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1 posted on 10/08/2018 3:45:09 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: yesthatjallen

YAWN


2 posted on 10/08/2018 3:46:05 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: butlerweave

They couldn’t get flies to come to cow dung.


3 posted on 10/08/2018 3:46:29 PM PDT by jyo19
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To: yesthatjallen
"...There is no evidence that the Trump campaign moved forward with the proposals.
4 posted on 10/08/2018 3:46:55 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Elections have consequences. get over it, we won! ~ Barack Obama)
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To: yesthatjallen

Anyone doubt that the democrats would stoop to this?

We’ve already seen this with some of the campaigns against corporations where a few activists try to project themselves as thousands of people. And with fake facebook and twitter profiles.

Do we need laws against this type of deception? And how would they be structured?


5 posted on 10/08/2018 3:49:06 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: yesthatjallen

Anyone doubt that the democrats would stoop to this?

We’ve already seen this with some of the campaigns against corporations where a few activists try to project themselves as thousands of people. And with fake facebook and twitter profiles.

Do we need laws against this type of deception? And how would they be structured?


6 posted on 10/08/2018 3:49:07 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: yesthatjallen

Paid Trolls: The model that Media Matters uses right now.

Fake users, thousands of posts. Especially to The Hill. Comments there are blatently paid trolls.

Not illegal, though maybe it should be. Used to perfection by dozens of Soros financed groups. Heck, they even use paif protestors, with fake “I’ve been mollested” screams.


7 posted on 10/08/2018 3:50:04 PM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Q: Believing Is Seeing!)
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To: yesthatjallen

So what? is that illegal?


8 posted on 10/08/2018 3:52:18 PM PDT by JoSixChip (He is Batman!)
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To: DannyTN

I’d say the dems are losing big time because CNN is back to Russia Russia Russia. This time Mueller really really got him. He’s done for sure now.


9 posted on 10/08/2018 3:54:27 PM PDT by shelterguy
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To: Basket_of_Deplorables
Agree.

This is nothing more than what Democrats do.

But Democrats are never investigated for it.

10 posted on 10/08/2018 3:59:24 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: yesthatjallen

Reporters ought to do a little investigating about Obama, including his millions of fake Twitter followers.


11 posted on 10/08/2018 3:59:47 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: kaehurowing

Obama: 3 million fake followers

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/technology/twitter-followers-nyt.html


12 posted on 10/08/2018 4:00:57 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: yesthatjallen

More fake news. And not even Russia, Russia, Russia. Enough already.

Every day, the failing NYT plumbs new lows.


13 posted on 10/08/2018 4:01:00 PM PDT by goldstategop (I In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: yesthatjallen

I expected more leaks from Mueller this week. And here one is, right on cue.

I hop they can do better before Rosenstein testifies on thurs.


14 posted on 10/08/2018 4:03:10 PM PDT by Reverend Wright (I am a Putin bot. (it, their, theirs))
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To: yesthatjallen

“There is no evidence that the Trump campaign moved forward with the proposals. “

Obviously, evidence for impeachment. (/s)


15 posted on 10/08/2018 4:05:34 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: yesthatjallen

How many DOZENS of Democrat “Opinion Management Firms” already use bots on Social Media, and have for well over a DECADE?


16 posted on 10/08/2018 4:08:00 PM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: jyo19
They couldn’t get flies to come to cow dung.

I don't know who did it,but I have seen it happen.

17 posted on 10/08/2018 4:08:29 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: yesthatjallen
Yeah, and nothing happened because Trump won the nomination outright and there was no need for a social media delegate fight with Ted Cruz. So Gates, and maybe Manafort, floated a trial balloon that fell like a lead balloon.

This is their best, post-Kavnanaugh? What happened to that big Slimes story about Trump's inheritance? That seems to have been forgotten too.

18 posted on 10/08/2018 4:14:17 PM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: yesthatjallen

Is this somehow worse than dead people voting?


19 posted on 10/08/2018 4:20:41 PM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: yesthatjallen

There are probably close to 20M fake ids out there.
1M are probably being used by the MSM


20 posted on 10/08/2018 4:35:12 PM PDT by Zathras
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