Accomplished author Jean Robert Revolus writes about the 2016 Election in his latest book, US Election 2016 NO COLLUSION?978-1-95-163003-4. In November 2016, Republican candidate, Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America. For many, this came as a complete shock. The polls had predicted an entirely different outcome, giving Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State, 90% chances of winning against Trump.
Revolus’s purpose in writing this book was the allegations that came to light soon after Trump’s inauguration. The allegations claimed that Trump had closely worked with the Russian government to swing the voters’ decisions to his favor. Different US institutions launched investigations into the allegations to uncover the truth. The FBI launched the Special Counsel Investigation, which was led by former FBI director Robert Mueller, and is thoroughly discussed in the book by Revolus. After the investigation was over, the Mueller Report, the findings of the investigation, was released to the public. But a redacted version. The findings describe the role that the Russians played to help influence voters’ decisions. As per Intelligencer, here is what the findings said:
Russians engaged in an elaborate scheme to sway the election in Trump’s favor
· On February 16, 2018, Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies with engaging in propaganda efforts intended to disrupt the 2016 election. While the indictments support the U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia was working to help Trump, the court documents do not address the hacking of Democrats. Instead, they focus on a Russian social-media push that began in 2014 with the goal of stirring division and shaking people’s faith in the U.S. election system, but eventually shifted to backing Trump.
· Court documents allege that the Internet Research Firm, a Russian troll farm, set out to conduct “information warfare” against the U.S. The company had hundreds of workers and a multimillion-dollar budget, supplied by companies linked to YevgenyPrigozhin, a St. Petersburg businessman with ties to Putin.
· Russians impersonated American citizens on social media and occasionally in person, posing as activists online, buying ads, and organizing rallies.
· Some of the Russians were in contact with “unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign,” but no Americans were accused of knowingly participating in Russia’s scheme. Mueller reached a plea deal with Richard Pinedo, a California man who committed identity fraud when he unknowingly sold bank-account numbers created using the stolen identities of U.S. citizens to Russians.
· None of the Russians are in custody and it’s unlikely that they will ever be tried. Naming them makes it harder for them to continue their secretive work or travel abroad. Plus, it theoretically refutes the claim that Russia’s election meddling was a hoax — though of course, Trump cherry-picked from the indictment, falsely claiming that it proved “the results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!”
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