Dan Nowicki | The Republic | azcentral.com

Jack Gruber/USA TODAY

Russian Twitter trolls, now purged from the social network, routinely spread insults and conspiracy theories smearing Sen. John McCain as a "traitor" and a "RINO," Republican In Name Only, during his 2016 reelection campaign and beyond.

An Arizona Republic survey of more than 300 McCain-related tweets collected in an NBC News database of messages indicates the Russian accounts frequently retweeted smears of McCain from other Twitter users as well as sometimes sharing news stories about McCain from azcentral.com and other legitimate news organizations.

That the Russian Twitter trolls sought to discredit McCain, R-Ariz., was perhaps predictable given the six-term senator's longstanding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who officially sanctioned McCain in 2014. A Kremlin spokesman in May said McCain, the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is known for his "maniacal hatred towards our country."

"It’s no surprise Vladimir Putin’s troll factory has made one of its top targets Senator McCain, who has led the effort in Congress to fight Russian aggression, human-rights abuses and corruption," McCain spokeswoman Julie Tarallo told The Republic in an emailed statement. "He continues working to ensure Russia pays a price for its attack on our democracy while pushing America’s national security leaders to finally strengthen our defenses against foreign interference in cyberspace.”

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16 indicted 13 Russian operatives and the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-aligned "troll farm" that spread propaganda on social-media platforms during the 2016 elections, on a variety of charges related to an alleged conspiracy to sabotage the lawful U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election, through fraud and deceit.

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Photos: John McCain through the years

The indictment, which was presented to the grand jury by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller, describes the Internet Research Agency as a "Russian organization engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes."

Twitter has been suspending accounts linked to the troll farm and deleting the tweets. But NBC News, relying on a "partial list of names released by Congress," retrieved more than 200,000 of the Russian-linked tweets and recently published them in an online database.

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The NBC News picture is incomplete, but gives more than a glimpse at the Kremlin's Twitter propaganda effort and confirms McCain was targeted with a seemingly indiscriminate array of attacks on his character.

The Russian trolls sometimes would retweet bogus attempts to disparage McCain's military record — he was shot down in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than five years — and groundless allegations that later participated in a POW cover-up.

They also seemed to seize on McCain's role the drama surrounding a salacious, unsubstantiated dossier about Trump as well as an incident in which, on the Senate floor, McCain accused Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., of "now working for Vladimir Putin."

In most of the tweets archived in the NBC News database, the Russian trolls amplified attacks on McCain from the senator's right-wing critics who support President Donald Trump, with whom McCain has feuded on-and-off for nearly three years.

The tweets seem to run from the 2016 election cycle, in which McCain defeated Republican challenger Kelli Ward in Arizona's GOP Senate primary and Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick in the general election, into 2017, when McCain emerged as a high-profile check on Trump.

A typical example: A now-suspended account @evagreen69 retweeted this insulting message aimed at McCain from another now-gone account, @Boaz411: "Time to retire you senile old scumbag traitor!"

A now-suspended account @hyddrox at one point retweeted a March 12, 2017, from Twitter user Isabelle H-Gustafson, who still tweets with the handle @izzysroses: "McCain at this point has to be recalled and/or Sensored (sic) he is obstructing this admin at everyturn! out of control!"

McCain at this point has to be recalled and/or Sensored he is obstructing this admin at everyturn! out of control! @VP @realDonaldTrump — Isabelle H-Gustafson (@izzysroses) March 12, 2017

The now-suspended account @mil0blake retweeted this conspiratorial Feb 2, 2017, message from an account called @AwakeNancyRN: "MCcain (sic) is a NWO (New World Order), sellout, puppet who parades himself around as if patriot. Sold his soul to (liberal activist George) Soros."

The anonymous @AwakeNancyRN account is still up, but hasn't tweeted since Oct. 31.

@Pjmbsnrn1 @SenJohnMcCain @POTUS MCcain is a NWO, sellout, puppet who parades himself around as if patriot. Sold his soul to Soros. #maga — TheConsciousRN (@AwakeNancyRN) February 3, 2017

Accusations of treason against McCain were common in the messages tweeted or retweeted by the Russian trolls.

The suspended account @patriotblake retweeted a Feb. 22, 2017, message from the account @MAGA_1958: "The biggest threat to America is NOT the Chinese or the Russians. It’s people like Republican Traitors McCain and (South Carolina Sen. Lindsey) Graham."

The biggest threat to America is NOT the Chinese or the Russians. It’s people like Republican Traitors McCain and Graham — MAGA_1958 (@MAGA_1958) February 22, 2017

McCain, who at age 81 is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, in October pushed back on one particular Russian smear, after revelations that the disinformation campaign included peddling an internet canard that McCain had met with Islamic State militants in Syria in May 2013.

Facebook revealed Oct. 2 that about 10 million users of its platform saw Russian-made ads aimed at influencing elections in the United States.

"Among the thousands of online advertisements reportedly purchased by Russian entities over the last year is a photo falsely suggesting I met with the leaders of ISIS, which has no basis in truth and has been debunked by every major fact-checker," McCain said in an Oct. 5 statement. "Other advertisements purchased by the Russians during the 2016 election sought to fuel racial divisions, stoke fear of immigrants and refugees, and undermine support for U.S. foreign policy."

McCain at that time called the Russian ads "just one element of Vladimir Putin’s long-term goal of undermining democracies around the world."

"Putin’s Russia has no meaningful allies, so it seeks to sow dissent among us and divide us from each other," McCain said. "Putin knows that his power and influence is inferior to ours, so he seeks to subvert us, erode our will to resist, and terrorize us into passivity. Putin knows he has little to offer the world beyond selfishness and fear, so he seeks to undermine our confidence in ourselves and our belief in our own values."

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The NBC News database of Russian tweets include at least one tweet perpetuating the false story about McCain and ISIS. The now-suspended account @thefoundingson tweeted: "Where were you when McCain was over in Syria meeting with ISIS and bragging about it?"

McCain's dust-up with Senate GOP colleague Paul — he accused him of working for Putin after Paul blocked a treaty related to allowing Montenegro to join NATO, a move that Russia opposed — also seemed to trigger the Russian trolls.

In one example, the @hyddrox account retweeted an account called @Welly_World saying: "Ass Hat McCain calls Rand Paul a 'Russian Agent'. Good Lord...If you had any doubt whose side McCain's really on."

Ass Hat McCain calls Rand Paul a "Russian Agent".

Good Lord...If you had any doubt whose side McCain's really on. — Katarina-Crumbs-Covfefe (@Welly_World) March 25, 2017

The trolls also went after McCain when it was revealed he had obtained a file of potentially compromising but unsubstantiated research on Trump alleging Russian ties and that he delivered it to the FBI.

David J. Kramer of Arizona State University's McCain Institute for International Leadership, who is said to have given McCain the anti-Trump dossier, has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in relation to an ongoing House Intelligence Committee investigation, Fox News reported Thursday.

A Twitter account @lazykstafford, now suspended, retweeted this from @mcgilh: "He probably ordered it! John McCain admits he gave FBI the Trump smear dossier; angry Americans want him removed."

The @mcgilh tweet included a link to a story about McCain and the dossier on a questionable right-wing news website called BizPac Review.

McCain admitted it was He that gave Intel the Fake News About President Elect Trump...Demand he RESIGN !

PLEASE RT THIS POST pic.twitter.com/DVGLFweNUY — 🇺🇸🌟Dr.OLMO🌟🇺🇸 (@realDrOlmo) January 13, 2017

Now-suspended troll account @ameliebaldwin retweeted @realDrOlmo's Jan. 12, 2017, tweet: "McCain admitted it was He that gave Intel the Fake News About President Elect Trump...Demand he RESIGN!"

Ward, who failed in her 2016 primary challenge to McCain, is running again for the Senate this year.

One of the suspended Russian troll accounts, @cookncooks, retweeted longtime Republican operative Roger Stone, a Trump ally, as saying on March 23, 2016, he would be working for Ward in Arizona's 2016 primary and "Kiss @JohnMcCain goodbye!"

Do you believe that this election cycle is #rigged? — Dr. Kelli Ward (@kelliwardaz) October 20, 2016

The suspended troll account @leroylovesusa retweeted Ward herself polling her Twitter followers on this Oct. 19, 2016, question:

"Do you believe that this election cycle is #rigged?"

Agnel Philip contributed to this report.