Trump Campaign Aide Requested Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm.

[elleng]

'A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals.

The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company’s pitches were narrower than Moscow’s interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump’s favor.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, sought one proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway 5,000 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump’s main opponent at the time. Another proposal describes opposition research and “complementary intelligence activities” about Mrs. Clinton and people close to her, according to copies of the proposals obtained by The New York Times and interviews with four people involved in creating the documents.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/rick-gates-psy-group-trump.html?

(As discussed on Rachel Show by Joy)

[Socal31]

1. This shouldn't surprise anyone.

Hopefully nobody believes that the lightning-fast and self-destructive "blame Avenatti", "burn Manchin at the stake!" and "Boycott Maine" memes were organic.

Right around the time I joined DU, I remember that the sock-puppets from FreeperTown were a real problem. Kudos to the admins for how they largely squashed them. Maybe they need to give the NSA and DIA some pointers.

[democratisphere]

2. Gag Order.