Targeting and Recruitment of U.S. Persons

As early as 2014, the IRA instrncted its employees to target U.S. persons who could be used to advance its operational goals. Initially, recrnitment focused on U.S. persons who could amplify the content posted by the IRA. For example, the IRA's manual contained an insb.uction on how to target influential U.S. persons:

You should pay special attention to working with public opinion influencers. Concentrate your efforts on communicating with them. Attempt to establish a personal contact. Tmn to them with a request to support (distribute) a relevant topic. Do not p ay attention to how it will be done. Even if the public opinion influencer simply shares your material, it will be an example of your success. Any platf01m will work for you, except for mass media.88

IRA employees frequently used the private messaging functions of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to contact and recrnit U.S. persons who followed the group. The IRA recruited U.S. ersons from across the olitical s ecb.u m . For example, the IRA targeted the family of - and a number of black social justice activists

Tue pro-Trnmp rallies were organized through multiple Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts. See, e.g., Facebook ID 100009922908461 (Matt Skiber); Facebook ID 1601685693432389 (Being Patli otic); Twitter Account @march_for_trnmp; beingpatii otic@gmail.com. (Rallies were organized in New York on June 25, 2016; Flotida on August 20, 2016; and Pennsylvania on October 2, 2016.)

i&f8iSIWf8iWI [Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E), (b) (3)] [Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E)] "Waging Information Warfare Against the United St.ates," supra, at 20.

¶while posing as a grassroots group called "Black Matters US."⁸⁹⁸⁹ 3/11/16 Facebook Adve1tisement ID 6045078289928, 5/6/16 Facebook Advertisement ID 6051652423528, 10/26/16 Facebook Adve1tisement ID 6055238604687; 10/27/16 Facebook Message, ID [Redacted: (b) (6), (b) (7)(C)] & ID 100011698576461 (Taylor Brooks). In Febma1y 2017, the persona "Black Fist" (purpo1iing to want to teach African -Americans to protect themselves when contacted by law enforcement) hired a self-defense instm ctor in New York to offer classes sponsored by Black Fist. The IRA also recmited moderators of conservative social media groups to promote IRA-generated content,⁹⁰⁹⁰ 8/ 19/ 16 Facebook Message, ID 100009922908461 (Matt Skiber) to ID [Redacted: (b) (6), (b) (7)(C)] as well as recmited individuals to perfo1m political acts (such as walking around New York City dressed up as Santa Claus with a Trnmp mask).⁹¹⁹¹ 12/8/ 16 Email, robot@craigslist.org to beingpatriotic@gmail.com (confnming Craigslist adve1t isement).

¶Beginning in March 2016, the IRA's budget (which was sent to Concord) began to include an entiy for payments for "activists." Many of the IRA payments to U.S . persons were made in connection with the U.S. rallies. For example, the IRA paid one Florida woman over $1 ,000 to attend two pro-Tmmp rallies in Florida and New York while dressed up as Clinton in a prison jumpsuit.⁹²⁹² 8/ 18-19/ 16 Twitter DMs, @march_for_tmmp & [Redacted: (b) (6), (b) (7)(C)] e . . , 11/11-27/16 Facebook ID 100011698576461 (Taylor Brooks) & rriiliWJ'~..,..iW'i~~ I (ananging to pay for plane tickets and for a Facebook Message, ID 100009922908461 (Matt Skiber) & (discussing payment for rally supplies); 8/ 18/ 16 Twitter DM, {discussing payment for constrnction materials). Similarly, th e IRA paid an activist over $1,000 in connection with staging multiple black social justice rallies in November 2016 and December 2016.93 The IRA paid for other expenses, such as buttons, signs, flyers, bullhorns, an d other rally materials, as well as supplies to construct a prop prison cell at one event. 94

¶IRA records show that, as th e IRA's online audience became larger, the IRA h'acked U.S. persons with whom they collllllunicated and had successfully tasked (with tasks ranging from organizing rallies to taking pictures with ce1iain political messages). For example, one recovered IRA spreadsheet (reprinted in paii below) contained the nam es of over 100 U.S. persons recmited th rough Instagram. The spreadsheet contained comments about th e IRA-conti·olled account th rough which they had been recm ited, what they had been tasked to do, and their contact info1mation.95

¶[Redacted: (b) (6), (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(C), (b) (7)(E)]