Russians claimed fraud in Iowa caucuses, Mueller indictment alleges

Russian operatives trying to sow discord and distrust during the 2016 presidential campaign bought social media advertisements alleging fraud in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

That’s one of the allegations in a blockbuster indictment made public today by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s investigating Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign.

The indictment alleges that an organized group of Russian operatives began promoting a range of allegations of voter fraud by the Democratic Party in the summer of 2016 as the general election race between Trump and Hillary Clinton was heating up.

Among those was an allegation about the caucuses, the first presidential contest of the 2016 nominating process, which Clinton won by a tiny margin over Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders.

“On or about August 4, 2016,” the indictment says, “Defendants and their co-conspirators began purchasing advertisements that promoted a post on the ORGANIZATION-controlled Facebook account 'Stop A.I.' The post alleged that 'Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus.'”

MORE: Special counsel indicts Russian nationals for interfering with U.S. elections and political processes

The indictment provides few details beyond that on the Russians’ use of the caucuses in an alleged disinformation campaign.

But the fact that they seized on the close caucus result between Clinton and Sanders and the intraparty divide it engendered following the caucuses is significant, said Norm Sterzenbach, a long-time Iowa political consultant and caucuses expert who acted as an informal adviser to the Iowa Democratic Party on caucus night.

“They clearly were paying close attention to our political discourse and drilling down deep into the details to increase the impact of their meddling,” Sterzenbach said. “When the Democratic Party was going to great lengths to unify after a hard-fought primary season, it appears Russia was doing everything imaginable – and unimaginable – to divide us.”

Clinton won the caucuses by a quarter of a state delegate equivalent, a vanishingly narrow margin in a contest whose reporting system is convoluted and not well understood. Even before the results were fully counted, activists and partisans inside and outside Iowa were raising questions about the how the caucuses were administered.

Divisions and antagonism between Clinton and Sanders supporters lingered for months after the caucuses, with Sanders loyalists frequently alleging inappropriate influence by a pro-Clinton “establishment.”

While Facebook ads bought in August, months after the caucuses, may or may not have been aimed specifically at Iowans, Sterzenbach said they were likely encountered here, perhaps inflaming those lingering tensions.

Indeed, the Iowa-specific allegation and the indictment’s broader description of Russian incursion into the election lines up with the experiences of officials running the Clinton campaign in 2016.

“It was evident there was some sort of amplification effort underway (during the general election) to propel this false story and many other false stories involving the campaign,” said Matt Paul, the Des Moines Democratic operative who served as Clinton’s Iowa state director and later as chief of staff to vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

Robert Becker, the Iowa state director and later battleground states director for Sanders’ campaign, said he never felt the influence of a Russian meddling effort. Nor did the Sanders campaign believe there was anything fraudulent about the Iowa caucuses.

“It was pretty much a straight-up honest virtual tie,” Becker said of the caucus result. “It was a heated contest, but you had two well-organized campaigns battle to a draw. We never saw any evidence of anything untoward to affect that outcome.”

Becker and Paul agreed that the details revealed by the indictment underscore the seriousness of Russian meddling in the campaign – and the need for all Americans to respond accordingly.

“As we head into what is going to be a critically important election in 2018 and certainly before the next presidential election in 2020, we absolutely need to know as a country what took place so we can do whatever we can possible to prevent it from happening again,” Paul said. “That is what matters here.”

Added Becker in a separate interview on Friday, “It’s a serious national security issue that the federal government and both political parties need to take seriously moving forward.”

The Iowa Democratic Party on Friday likewise cast the indictment as a call to action, albeit with a more partisan bent.

“The news today about a Russian attack on our caucuses and our democracy shows that no part of our democratic process was immune from this attack – and we are still vulnerable given the weak, almost permissive, response from President Trump and his allies in Congress,” Party Chairman Troy Price said in a statement.