Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Markets Balance Of Power 20180216

Indictment, we know who that individuals are in the company. It goes back as far as 2014, and apparently they were impersonating u. S. Entities and individuals as they try to interfere with the election. We have any idea of the location of these people or where these companies are . Kevin that is where this is all headed, whether or not number one, these russian folks and businesses are going to cooperate with the u. S. Authorities, and we have seen of course, some backandforth on this. Think back to other week with the Treasury Department announcing a list of companies, and it was greeted with criticism from republicans on capitol hill. The question because of the russians will cooperate and will Vladimir Putin have a response indictment ong u. S. Authorities. President trump cast doubt on russian meddling on elections, but tell us a little bit about what his stance has been so far. Be aere is going to crowded gathering watching him to part for florida as a result of todays development. What we know about this indictment and more details emerge is that it says explicitly that they posted derogatory information on a number of candidates and that included supporting the president ial campaign of then candidate donald j trump. This puts, squarely for the president to answer something that has been more peaceful terex so far, has been testimony mr. This is where mueller and his team and investigation has always had multiple parts. Part of this is examining russian interference in elections. Pd other pieces of that ife have looked separately there was any coordination or contacts with the campaign or folks affiliated with the campaign. This indictment which is on the part of what was the russian involvement, the russian interference, but this to some extent will fulfill the desire to show that mr. Mueller is doing work. This is a major development, but it does put a political focus on the president s public response to this. Have seen reaction of the markets with the dow falling 70 points as we got news of those indictments. Indictments. Mr. Muellers office is now saying none of the russian defendants are in custody at the moment. What else do we know about most are muellers investigation because we heard earlier this week that steve bannon had also talked with mr. Mueller. We learned yesterday that mr. Mueller and his team spent two full days of questioning with steve bannon, about 18 hours from what i was told. We dont have any clarity yet on the nature of those questions or what they wanted to talk to mr. Bennett about, what sort of answers he elicited, other than the idea that he gave them responses in many hours of questioning. Been regardedas as interesting because he came later in the process after many of these figures like carter patient Paul Manafort already left the campaign and were phasing out. At the same time, brandon is important because he was the some ofrategist those conversations during the transition, and early months of the administration where some of the figures included jerod kershner, who is very much a part of what mueller and his team are interested in looking at. It is unclear what steve bannon new, but it is obvious why he is interesting for Robert Miller and his team, and congressional committees havent had as much luck getting answers from steve bannon. David when there is breaking news like this, it is important to this they we do know and what we dont know. There is no suggestion of a direct connection to mr. Trump or his campaign, no mention at all, this is all a russian thing. At the same time, there is a connection with vladimir prison, because this was funded by mr. Because young, who is identified as clintons chef, and is known for having restaurants where mr. Putin frequents. Is it true that these allegations are true . If he goes right back to Vladimir Putin. Kevin a couple of things, first and foremost, you raised a great point it is easy to talk about the politics of this in the moment and there is no language in the latest indictment. Thatrd, latest indictment President Trump has any direct knowledge of this back and forth. Republicans obviously are going to make note of that. Yousecond point to what just said, lets take a step back at the trend we have seen, the u. S. Government both in the Obama Administration and now in the Trump Administration think back during the transition. When the Obama Administration issued their report on cybersecurity concerns regarding russia. The u. S. K to when seized russian assets a new york and new jersey, causing a popular Russian Embassy of sorts, a prominent house. Earlymove forward to the stages of the Trump Administration and the Intelligence Community issued a chronology of sorts from top intelligence officials about what had gone on during the meddling. People like coats from the dni explicitly say that there was some meddling, that no direct connection as of now, between the president was aware of that, or any votes were actually impacted by that. Regardless, this is without question to meet at a time where the nunez memo highly politicized this investigation on capitol hill and is without question the most direct action taken by the u. S. Authorities against a foreign actor for meddling in the democratic process. Shery we expect a press conference at 1 00 p. M. And is expected to announce indictments of the 13 russian nationals. Margaret, as kevin was telling us, this is deeply politicized, what can we expect moving forward and what is the reaction from President Trumps action to this whole investigation as we get more of these allegations coming forward . Is going to be important to watch domestically, it has been that the president has felt that his interests to minimize the discussion about this or focus on this because he felt personally or politically when takingis away from his win. President trumps political standing notwithstanding, being able to focus on election interference and preventing any future threats is important for the midterm primaries. It is going to affect anything from sanctions to the nato relationship, to talks about Nuclear Energy and nuclear weapons. To talks about how to deal with the middle east, syria, places where President Trump has sought areas of political cooperation, he was more vocal about finding ways to work together. Bit, butchanged a still, his path until now has allowed him to try to have formative conversations with Vladimir Putin. A result ofext as this may have an impact on foreign policy. Shery margaret, thank you so much for breaking this down, and Kevin Cirilli on capitol hill. We are seeing some movement in the market, but still resilient to pay local headlines political headlines. Lets get a check with abigail doolittle. Abigail the gains are remarkable, for the nasdaq, on paper its best week its 2011. Up more thanrages half a percent, and pretty remarkable after we had two weeks a big selling pressure. We are a bit off of the highs, not a huge way, but the dow has been up more than 910s of 1 , so almost having gains, and the 10 year yield on the bottom rallying for basis points. Not at the lows, but a little and thishaven, reflects some of the uncertainty on the indictments of 13 russians by Robert Mueller and three companies. We see that there was some trading action early on, thedering with gains at highs, the s p 500 has been up, but then use of this indictment, we see it a leg lower. Some uncertainty here, but the bulls are in charge of the day and on the week. It will be interesting to see if this holds, but right now it certainly does, and relative to haven bonds, it is a different story, haven bonds are selling off and this is a year to date chart on the 10 year yield. The biggest move higher since 2013, the paper tantrum, a move lower today, a bit of a haven today, but from a technical perspective there is agreement that the 10 year yield is set to rise above 3 , suggesting we might see haven bonds selloff. Rallying,ven bonds and caring to some extent on the Robert Mueller news. David thank you so much, abigail. U. S. Special counsel Robert Miller announcing indictment against 13 russians and three Russian Companies on interfering with the u. S. Elections. Live from new york, this is bloomberg. Shery this is balance of power. Robert miller announcing the indictment of 13 russian nationals and three russian entities accusing them of interference. Now, probably like us, yet had a chance to look at the indictment but not much more time from that, but what have you gathered looking at it briefly . In a couplenificant of ways, one is that this is the broadest indictment ever brought in the countrys history in dealing with foreign interference with an election. On the face of it, this is a relatively novel type of indictment, it is not unexpected. Robert mueller but a lot of people to track to sources of interference. Level, these are not exotic charges. You have people charged with the fraud, and wire these are not noble or exotic allegations, but what is novel is the context and narrative, the narrative says this is a coordinated effort and suggesting the russian government or aspects of the government were behind it. The item ofws been used in research and could point to is the single word, and the indictment, it refers to russians contacting Trump Campaign officials, but describes those officials as being unwittingly involved. That work, unwittingly, could make the difference for this white house. Most of us understood the russians interfered with the election, but the question is if there was collusion, unwittingly does not mean collusion. The white house is going to put a lot on that word. David a very important point, it is important to focus although this is a Robert Mueller investigation, there is no suggestion with this indictment that the president , or his campaign were directly involved. You suggest that it might suggest the reverse, but these people are russians. The entities are russians. Presumably they are located in russia, what is the jurisdiction of the United States . Theyre not going to exit back in the states, are they . Seek to have these people extradited and seek cooperation of other governments, but russia is unlikely to particularly cooperate. They can also seek other intrapaul andh other International Agreements to make life difficult for these individuals. But this indictment tax these individuals and is not good for them, they could live out their lives in russia as long as the government can protect them, but this really does restrict their travel and their types of business and personal interactions. I think that when you look at this objectively, what you have is confirmation of what most people have already accepted. The russians had a coordinated effort to hack the election and also states that effort was directed against Hillary Clinton in favor of donald trump. In terms of confirmation, that is significant. People need to keep in mind that there is nothing new in the sense of allegation of russian interference. What all of us were looking for is if there was any coordination or collusion, and this is conspicuous of his absence of its absence. The head of the concorde catering organization, we know they posted thinners for president Vladimir Putin, but aside from that, how do you make the concrete connection that this is officially coming from the russian government, trying to interfere in the u. S. Elections . Once again, most of us can the between the lines, and clear import of this narrative is that this was not some random, accidental effort. There was a lot of people involved in the coordinated effort, and there is only one likely source of that, and that is the russian government. The russians are good at this, so is the United States, by the way. They create these walls, but nobody is buying that come up and no one has bought it for a long time. I think what the president needs to do to get in front of this is to clean up his statements. I think the president s view is that he causes fake news, he is talking about the collusion aspect of the allegations. He needs to be more clear about that and say he understands that the russians interfered with this election, and he supports his government in pursuing these individuals. David for our audience to be clear, we are showing you where rosensteineneral rod is going to hold a News Conference and will take you to that when he comes out. One other point that struck me, this is not a particularly good thing for the social Media Outlets. I see facebook mentioned a couple of times, they were not wittingly and of all, but the concern about the role that the social Media Outlets have played. This is not very good for them, it would strike me. You put your finger on something that is important. Free speechthe community and the back of my neck go up when i read an indictment like this and members of congress are talking about combating fake news. There are freespeech concerns here. If Congress Moves to try to police the internet, we can police the internet, the people who view it. Yes, there is fake news, but you have to be careful when the government says i am here to help you and cleanup the internet. That is a concern a lot of the freeSpeech Community will have. This moment for Rod Rosenstein is a fascinating one, the president is not particularly fond of him. He is blamed for appointing Robert Mueller, with the president does not think is an appropriate counsel. On the other hand, this indicates his effort and Robert Millers effort, they ran these guys through the ground, found their identities and the pats in cyberspace that they needed to find, and as for the good of everyone. Trump hassident tapped out on russian meddling we know that mr. Miller could be speaking to President Trump, what sort of message does he need to get to the public to get ahead of the story and also to control the investigation as mr. Mueller progresses and the probe . I think i can say with great confidence what he should not tell mueller is that he hopes he is on his team. That would not be a good idea at this point, but i think that if mueller has the mitigation of the president , it is going to be limited if at all. Did,ld be surprised if he but, i think the important thing is that what President Trump says publicly. This is his opportunity to correct some of the missteps in the past. To distinguish his rejection of the collusion allegation against them and the allegation of russian interference. He needs to be clear. It be interesting if he takes the opportunity. One issue that may attract some walkie figures like myself in the coming days as input and that qualifier, unwittingly . It reminded me of the Clinton Press conference by call me when he adopted this weird language that doesnt appear in the code. It seemed to avoid saying that ofnton acted with the type intent or neglect that could be a crime. This unique language, and you often see this qualification of the acted unwittingly in an indictment. I think people are going to ask who added that qualifier . Whoever did, that qualifier is everything to the trump white house. David there is a question to what this means for donald trump and what it means for m ueller. We have another election coming in november, and then another president ial election in two years, and there is warning that they expect the russians to try this again. Head or suggestion of what we might do to defend ourselves and our elections Going Forward . This is where you are going to have a slight break in people looking at russian interference. I think folks in the free Speech Community and Internet Community are going to become more active in questioning measures that might be coming out of congress. Politicians have never been looked favorably on the internet. Controllable and it is damaging, and we see other countries like iran, china, russia, take steps to restrict the internet. The question is if this is a trojan horse moment if we will see legislation out of congress that gives the government lock sock powers over the internet powers over the internet. A free speechas person, and my preference is that we could police it ourselves. People who use the internet are savvy, i can tell you my kids are savvy, they dont believe anything they read on the internet. I think it may be the best protection. Shery we are awaiting Deputy Attorney general on these indictments, and as we wait for that press conference, let me ask you about mr. Millers mr. Robert muellers probes. Also, President Trumps financial dealings, could it go in separate directions with different branches of the government investigating all of this in different ways . It very likely will go in Different Directions but does it snip off mueller want the collusion part or the obstruction part of the investigation it if mueller feel he could very well make that publicly known, at least through communication to congress. That would allow these other investigations to go forward, and it sounds that he has a plea deal in the making with dates, was indicted with Paul Manafort. I wrote a column in the next morning saying that i think gates is going to flip, yet that indictment was designed to get gates to flip. Anything ons has trump are the white house is speculative, and he is likely to have something on Paul Manafort. David thank you so much, jonathan. I could hear you hesitate it is great to have you. [laughter] shery just a reminder, we continue to wait for attorney general Rod Rosenstein will hold a press conference, omens after Robert Mueller announced an indictment on 13 russian nationals and three russian entities accused of interfering in the u. S. Elections. David we want to bring in henry meyer now, joins us the telephone a munich, germany. Thank you for joining us, and i suspect the Google Search rate yevgeni is about to go way up, because he is front and center in this indictment. As vladimirbed putins cook and he has a Catering Company that works for the kremlin, but that is not his only russian activity. A is alleged to set up factory in st. Petersburg, and this is the basis for the indictment that invites him and the Senior Executives in this tech Company Operating in st. Petersburg, as well as several employees who are alleged to be involved in trying to influence the president ial election in the United States. It is allegations, but what it says is that he is bankrolling this, is he a man of wealth who can afford to do this . Yes indeed, he is a very wealthy man. His Catering Company has a contract with the kremlin and also works in a lot of schools in moscow. General, he personally has a lot of money. The interesting thing is he is denies, which he linked to a mercenary company , and was involved in syria which, according to information that bloomberg received, more than 200 russian mercenaries were killed by u. S. Forces. Shery we are hearing from mr. Millers office that none of the russian defendants are in custody, but what are the chances we could get these russian nationals actually facing any sort of repercussion in the u. S. . Say the chances are quite slim, to be honest, if any of them will travel to the United States. I think they will be staying well cared. Shery have we seen any event in the past link to russia and the United States we have these allegations against nationals of each country and what happens during the process . How this process moves forward . I think this is unprecedented. Obviously you have russian individuals accused of carrying is on aes, but this totally different scale. David you know the situation there so well, lets put aside speculation, that Vladimir Putin was behind us, but i will ask you a different question, given the way the russian government operates, is there any way this could have gone on if it in fact happened without the mayor pete vladimirabout it putin knowing about it . The most commonly held view is that putin gave the go ahead. Also have Kevin Cirilli standing by, kevin, give us insight about what we are expecting from the Deputy Attorney general as we get his press conference anytime now. Kevin what we will hear from Rod Rosenstein is essentially a line by line playbook. Sorry, we are going now to Rod Rosenstein. 13 russian nationals and three Russian Companies for committing federal crimes while seeking to interfere in the United States political system, including the 2016 president ial election. The defendant allegedly conducted what they called Information Warfare against the United States. With the stated goal of spreading this trust towards the candidates and the political system in general. According to the allegations of the indictment, health of the individual defendants worked at various times for a Company Called Internet Research agency, llc. A Russian Company based in st. Petersburg. Defendant, funded the conspiracy the companies known as concorde management and consulting llc, and many affiliates and subsidiaries. The conspiracy was part of a larger operation called project lockdown. Lockdown included multiple components, some of them including audiences of the Russian Federation and others targeting foreign audiences in other countries. Agency operated to russian Shell Companies and employed hundreds of people in online operations, ranging from craters of fictitious personas to technical and administrative support personnel with an annual budget of millions of dollars. Internet Research Agency was a structured organization headed by a Management Group and arranged into departments, including graphics, Search Engine optimization, information technology, and finance departments. In 2014, the company established a translator project focused on the United States. 2016, more than 80 employees were assigned to the translator project. Of the defendants allegedly traveled to the United States in 2014 to collect intelligence for their american influenced operations. In order to hide russian origins of their activities, the defendants allegedly purchased space on computer server located in the United States to set up a Virtual Private Network. The defendants use that infrastructure to establish hundreds of accounts on social Media Networks such as facebook, instagram, and twitter. Making it appear those accounts were controlled by persons located new United States. They used stolen or fictitious fictitioustities, identities and back accounts, and opposed politically and socially active americans, advocating for and against particular candidates and established social media pages and groups to communicate with unwitting americans. They also purchased a little advertisements on social Media Networks. The russians also recruited and paid real americans to engage in Political Activities and political campaigns and stage political rallies. The defendants and their coconspirators pretended to be grassroots activists. According to the indictments, the americans did not know they were communicating with russians. Ther the election, defendant allegedly staged rallies to support the president elect while simultaneously staging rallies to protest his election. For example, the defendants organized one rally to spark the president elect, and another rally to oppose him, both in new york on the same day. 13, 2017, soon after the news media reported from the special counsels Office Investigating that russian operatives used social media to interfere with the election, one defendant wrote, we had a slight crisis here at work, the fbi busted our activity, so i got preoccupied covering tracks together with my colleagues. The indictment includes eight criminal counts, cap one alleges a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States by all the defendants. The defendants allegedly conspired to defraud americans lancet department of justice, and the department of state. Those organizations of the u. S. Government are responsible for administering federal requirements of disclosure of foreign involvement in certain domestic activities. Conspiracy of wire fraud and bank fraud by Internet Research agency and the defendants. Count 328 charge aggravated Identity Theft Internet Research agency and for individuals. There is no allegation in this indictment that any american was a knowing for to spend in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of 2016 election. I would caution you that everyone charge of the crime is presumed innocent until Proven Guilty in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce rentable evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty without a reasonable doubt, through a unanimous jury. The special counsels investigation is ongoing and there will be no comments from the special counsel at this time. This indictment serves as a reminder that the people are not always who they appear to be on the internet. The indictment alleges the russian conspirators want to promote this court in the United States and undermine Public Confidence and democracy. We must not allow them to succeed. The department of justice will work cooperatively with other Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies and with congress to defend our nation against similar, current, and future efforts. I want to thank the federal agents and prosecutors who are working on this case for their Exceptional Service and will be happy to take a few questions. [indiscernible] there is no allegation in the indictment defending the outcome of the election. On page four of the indictment, paragraph six specifically talks about the Trump Campaign, saying defendants communicated with unwitting individuals in the trunk campaign. My question is, Campaign Officials are reference, not by name were Campaign Officials cooperative or were they duped . What is their relationship . There is no allegation that any american had knowledge and the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps that they appear to be american activist, going so far as to have their activities on a Virtual Private Network in the United States. Have you heard from the russians if they will provide you the individuals for prosecution . No communications of the russians, but will follow the process of seeking cooperation and exhibition extradition. David we have been listening to rock rosenstein speaking at a News Conference in washington, going over what exactly what happened with Robert Muellers, saint will not hear from Robert Miller and he is speaking with the special counsel. It is against 13 individuals from russia, and no apparent ability to bring those people to justice at this point. Kevin, sorry to interrupt you so rudely,. Kevin not at all. That there are things white house will not be discouraged by, he was careful by what he was saying. Heard from two folks working closely with this administration and both of them seething on the word, unwittingly, unwittingly according to page six on this multipage indictment is how the Justice Department is describing the Trump Campaign officials who were used, essentially, to provide information to these russian organizations regarding their social media accounts. This is the same narrative that has been articulated by the Intelligence Committee of how russia has operated in the 2016 election. New details we have now think about this for a second, according to these charges, is that russian folks traveled to the United States as far back as 2014, and met with political operatives as far back as 2014, to discuss and gather intelligence to report back to russia. As you noted earlier, there is a section of how russian officials used u. S. Social Media Companies. The indictment points to facebook in particular, twitter, and instagram, to divide americans on matters of race, religion, and a host of other issues. This is the most aggressive step taken on behalf of u. S. Authorities against the foreign actors who meddled in the election. Trumpd yet from president or the administration. It seemed to be a systematic approach from russia, talking about establishing private servers and collecting intelligence on u. S. Soil. Russians tos it for collect information and other countries and how different is it in the past . I think the allegation, clearly, points to an operation that goes beyond anything that has been attempted before. The russians have been accused countriesg in other catalonia during the referendum there for independence. Re were similar activities but again, clearly not on the scale. Shery we continue to say we are not expecting action on the defendants and entities, however, what sort of messaging will the central russia that we have this announcement from the United States . Is going to see this as a major escalation this has been going on for months and months now, as every time Vladimir Putin is asked about it, he goes back and says there is no proof, but this is going to be seen as a major provocation. Relations are already at a terrible state between the u. S. And russia and this is going to make it worse. David it is extraordinary the lengths we have gone through, people coming here and find server space, and to your point, we heard from mr. Rosenstein that Campaign People were dealing with folks who appeared to be ordinary political activists from america. But also, there is no indication that it affected the election, but that has to be music to donald trump sears. s ears. He is hammering, debt point, essentially saying that this indictment shows no evidence of collusion, and does not say at all that any of the Campaign Officials knew what they were talking to, it notes elaborateorate and dating back to 2014, and the details were getting, the word of this is very damaging to how russian backed Companies Used social media firms. There are instagram accounts essentially to divide americans on the issue of race and religion, and that one point there is detailed in this indictment, russia used an american citizen, and unknowing american citizen to pose in front of the white house with a picture to wish someone a happy birthday. How. Is this, it is like reading run amok,l thriller so this is without a question going to open new debates. We should note that there are republicans hammering the administration to get more aggressive and responding to what happened in the 2016 election, including members of the senate Intelligence Committee, including senator lankford, a republican wes consistently raised the issue and a prominent trump supporter, and raised the issue about their concerns of the lack of aggression that folks have gone after. The justice investigation as we know is an entirely separate indictment that really is separate from President Trump, as of now, has yet to really agree with or endorse the actions of this type of investigation. David extraordinary development. Much, henry meyer, who joined us today by phone from you, and Kevin Cirilli, great to have you both with us. Shery i want to bring in bloomberg executive editor, great to have you here. What catches your eye . It. He sleeping nature of Robert Miller delivered today on a grand scale with incredible detail that goes beyond just a social media efforts to divide this country. I would point to one of the previous speakers about the unwitting campaign approach, and points to something that goes well beyond the pages of this indictment, and there were references to a conspiracy that in most people who work known to the grand jury and unknown to us were also involved in this effort, dont necessarily think it ends here. David where does it lead next, and what leverage will this gift mr. Mueller give mr. Mueller . Domino thatnext will be falling and what is next if you are a prosecutor . There are unnamed people and Campaign Aides discussed in florida and other places, but we dont know who might have been involved. The people in the u. S. Acting as u. S. But not u. S. Citizens some of them have contact with other people, so this is going to be expanding out, and there are companies i have never heard of that will be tracking as well. Shery there is no charge any american was a knowing this event. Participants, that this is an Ongoing Investigation into Paul Manafort and gates. How does this combined into one investigation and is one part of the problem one remain open . Financial dealings are also in question. There are different products of this investigation and may overlap in key moments. I think i look at the heart of the campaign and the Trump Officials weapon critical of Robert Muellers efforts but wait a minute, there is the collusion. What we havent seen before, and people helping with it, we dont have them all named in this indictment, so want question is wells might have been involved . It overlaps with other things. Although not directly related to russia, so we are waiting to find out if people like gates were quite operating and if there will be other charges of people in the campaign doing other things. I dont know. David sarah, one of the things we focused on is the extent of which social Media Companies, facebook, twitter, are named in this indictment. They didnt knowingly participate, but this cant be good news for them when theres a fair amount of scrutiny of how they are being used for nefarious purposes. What stuck out to me from this document is the nature of how these russians but the ads on social media. Howeviously we didnt know sophisticated this effort was, and it outlines in this indictment that they used stolen identities to make paypal accounts, and persuading real u. S. Citizens, and then using those paypal accounts to buy ads on social media. This is of higher sophistication that we understood. Media companies were being hammered by congress by not understanding that adds purchased in rubles may have something to do with the u. S. Election could be a red flag. This shows that it was actually much harder to track and may not know about the full extent of this effort. Shery we are now seeing Facebook Follow more than 1 on the news, what other regulations are rules could we expect coming from congress and also as we deal with this issue Going Forward . As aere has been effort transparency bill for social media advertising. I am not sure that will solve the issue here, what we are seeing is impersonation, and this is a very deep effort over many years to try to build credibility on these accounts. It is not an easy thing to take down. There are obviously social media accounts that are clear a person e hers or clearly bots clear impersonators. This is a sophisticated effort and it might get more complicated in the coming years as social Media Companies try to play whackamole with this problem. David when we asked john about this, he said where First Amendment and free speech and with be careful, but i would be surprised if there arent people in Congress Asking if we cant do anything about this. Are there things the government could do to practice to protect us Going Forward . Be regulated, as a neutral platform or a media company, or is it a Technology Company . The matter how you define the company, it will be up to facebook to come back to this. Goes back to things that happen in 2014 when there were international and the striking things about the indictment is the planning. Somehow, Robert Mueller has the information of the things they were doing, and how sophisticated the was. Facebook will has to respond or face relation. Shery we are seeing facebook and other social media sites change their operation and behavior given allegations. Facebook has been committing to, every time you see an ad, you can click the add and see where it comes from, and will have more information of who paid for it and what kind of ads are running on the network. Time, running a pro trump or prohillary you get to know where theyre coming from. I dont think this solves the fake identity issue. Facebook is getting more stringent on stolen accounts. I had an account stolen and i was told it did not violate standards. It will save you are going to do the best they can come up certainly congress is going to be trying to figure out what theyre going to do to make it enforced. Raised by question saras point, it is hard to do this, but i am not sure if that is a good answer or twitter, they said this is the problem and how we fix it, then we can all go on our merry way, but the answer is we create something that there is no way of protecting american elections from bianca fear with, that is scary. We are to your facebook, because there are other examples like twitter and instagram and other stuff, but theres reference to google here, not say they are pristine, but youtube has been implicated on a number of things going on, but it appears that google may have been a better job and is going to be one of the questions people are looking at. What is the best practices and how are some companies able to do a better job and not others . Atebook is so dependent on that they are more susceptible to it, so that is going to be an issue Going Forward. Especially if taking money from paypal accounts with a synonym, people may have an a problem there. When neil kelly and Bloomberg Technology reporter, sarah frier, peggy for joining us. Telephone,ing us by joyce, thank you. You, we areors like struck by this indictment and what we heard from robert rosenstein, how much information they have gathered. They say, ourh specific communications about what went in within this conspiracy that was large and located offshore in russia. How do they come up with disinformation . This is the tremendous effort those of us who have spent time in the Justice Department have been expecting to see from bob mueller and Rod Rosenstein all along. Ais shows they have amassed number of people walking them through the internal operations of this conspiracy, whether it is in russia or the United States or other countries. Inhink you are correct saying they have amassed a large amount of information and this detailing howay russians work, and no one can call this a witchhunt. Not going to ask you to speculate, but can you gather this information using signal intelligence . They have people on the inside as a practical matter . It seems likely day had human intelligence and witnesses but who does people might be grimaced to be seen. General wasney careful to point out that this indictment does not allege cooperation by any americans. It doesnt necessarily relate out, but it could mean they are not ready to reveal that. There could be a superseding indictment down the road, and be all there is. Shery we have a Russian Agency getting comments from one of the defendants in this indictment, saying that americans are impressionable people and they see what they want to see. I have a Great Respect for them and not upset that i ended up on this list, if they want to the devil, let them see it. Very strong words here, and the fact that we are hearing from the attorney the epic the attorney general that they were follow ordinary process of seeking extradition, joyce, we are not really expecting them to be brought into the United States. So what messaging tool is being used by the United States . That is a good point. Generalty attorney answer that following the press conference, this indictment, the hope is that you will always be able to action that all defendants, but if not, disrupt their work and sent a clear message that the United States understands what is going on and what that up with any additional conduct like this. David joyce, thank you so much for joining us. We will continue coverage of this story. This is bloomberg. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. 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We are live in bloomberg World Headquarters in new york over the next hour. Move. Rs u. S. Special counsel Robert Mueller unveils the details of a widespread and coordinated campaign by russians to influence the u. S. President ial election in favor of donald trump. That is our leading story right now. Lets get more on the breaking story. Mueller has announced a guilty plea for a california man, that is the latest development. We want to bring in Kevin Cirilli, our chief washington correspondent from our washington bureau. Tell us a little bit more about the Washington Men who pleaded guilty . Kevin this was announced in juxtaposition with the indictment that came out against the 13 individuals from russia as well as the three businesses. We do not know, for example, which