a hoax. i d like your comment on that. on page 26 of your report, you talk about the internet research agency and how tens of millions of u.s. persons became engaged with the posts that they made, that there were some 80,000 posts on facebook, that facebook itself admitted that 126 million people had probably seen the posts that were put up by the internet research agency, that they had 3800 twitter accounts and had designed more than 175,000 tweets that probably reached 1.4 million people. the internet research agency was spending about $1.25 million a month on all of this social media in the united states in what i would call an in-vision in our country. would you agree that it was not a hoax that the russians were
relatively simple active measure attack on us reached up to 126 million americans. 126 million americans is just under 40% of the u.s. population. it didn t cost a lot. it didn t take a lot of time. there s no reason for them not to do it again. so not only do we have to harden our elections, we have to come to our senses. agai again, if this is the new normal, i understand why bob is sad. two minutes remaining in this hour. chuck, as a legal matter, what new ground was plowed today? as a legal matter, not very much. all of the law, all of the facts were already there. it s dorothy and the wizard of oz, she always had the ability to get back to kansas. she just didn t know how. we had everything we needed. it was in the book. some of it came out in the movie, but frankly, the movie wasn t very compelling. again, i know some people read
on our democracy involved, as you said, two operations. first, a social mediainformation campaign. this was a targeted campaign to spread false information on places like twitter and facebook. is that correct? that s correct. facebook estimated, as per your report, that the russian fake images reached 126 million people. is that correct? i believe that s the sum we recorded. director, who did the russian social media campaign ultimately intend to benefit, hillary clinton or donald trump? donald trump. the second operation let me say donald trump. there were instances where hillary clinton was subject to much the same behavior. the second operation was a scheme, what we call the hack and dump, to steal and release hundreds of thousands of emails from the democratic party and the clinton campaign. is that a fair summary? that is. did your investigation find that the releases of the hacked emails were strategically timed
on page 26 of your report, you talk about the internet research agency. how tens of millions of u.s. persons became engaged with the post that they made, that there were some 80,000 posts on facebook, that facebook itself admitted that 126 million people have probably seen the posts that were put out by the internet research agency, that they have 3800 twitter accounts and have designed more than 175,000 tweets, that probably reach 1.4 million people. the internet research agency was spending about $1.25 million a month on all of this social media in the united states and what i would call an invasion in our country. would you agree that it was not a hoax? that the russians were engaged
to maximize impact on the election? i would have to refer you to our report on that question. page 36, i quote, the release of the documents were designed and timed to interfere with the 2016 u.s. presidential election. mr. mueller, which presidential candidate was russia s hacking and dumping operation designed to benefit, hillary clinton or donald trump? mr. trump. is it possible that this sweeping and systematic effort by russia actually had an effect on the outcome of the presidential election? those issues are being or have been investigated by other entities. 126 million facebook impressions, fake rallies, attacks on hillary clinton s health. would you rule out it might have had some effect on the election? i m not going to speculate. mr. mueller, your report describes a third avenue of attempted russian interference. that is the numerous links and contacts between the trump campaign and individuals tied to