FBI now investigating Breitbart and InfoWars as part of its probe into Donald Trump and Russia
Just hours after FBI Director James Comey confirmed on live national television today that his agency is actively investigating Russia and the Donald Trump campaign for their roles in rigging the 2016 election, it turns out the probe is even wider than acknowledged. McClatchy is now confirming that the FBI is also investigating the actions of two far right news outlets with direct ties to the Trump administration, as part of its Trump-Russia probe.
Part of the Russian government’s strategy for rigging the election involved using automated internet bots to spread pro-Trump news stories from sites like Breitbart and InfoWars in rapid fashion, helping those stories artificially go viral on social media, and giving Donald Trump a boost in the process. The FBI is investigating whether or not those news outlets were knowingly involved in this Russian government promotional process.
This hits close to home for Donald Trump on both counts. For the past several years, including the first half of the 2016 election cycle, Breitbart was run by Steve Bannon, who later took over Trump’s campaign and now serves as his White House Chief Strategist. InfoWars is run by Alex Jones, who serves as an informal Trump adviser. In a sign of just how little control Donald Trump now has over the exploding Trump-Russia investigation, the FBI is now investigating both news sites to determine whether they were conspirators in the effort to rig the election.
The often false stories published by sites like Breitbart and InfoWars are not necessarily a crime under the law. But if these sites did conspire with a hostile foreign government in an effort to influence the election, that would be a different matter. So this FBI investigation into these two sites (source: McClatchy) is a big deal – and yet another potential blow to Donald Trump. Contribute to Palmer Report
