DISINFO: No Trump-Russia conspiracy has been proven
SUMMARY
The private investigator, Robert Mueller, had investigated allegations of a conspiracy between Trump and Russia, and the so-called Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. He could not prove any of the accusations against the American president. Despite this, the American intelligence services believe that Russia was also broadcasting misleading news on social media, to help elect Donald Trump.
RESPONSE
A recurring narrative of denials which Moscow has issued regarding its involvement in the 2016 presidential election in the United States and employs the long-established charge of Russophobia which the Kremlin uses to deflect criticism, however legitimate.
Before the Robert Mueller report was published, Russian meddling in the 2016 election had already been established by US intelligence agencies. Thus, the Special Investigation was primarily concerned with "whether any Americans […] joined the Russian conspiracies to influence the election" (p.2).
Mueller makes clear in his report that "collusion" is not a legal concept under US federal law, and that gathering evidence thereof would have fallen outside the scope of the special counsel investigation (p. 2).
The aim of the probe was not merely to ascertain contacts between the Trump Campaign and Russia-linked individuals during the election period, but to establish whether these interactions were deliberate enough on the part of Trump Campaign officials to sustain charges of conspiracy (p. 2).
In fact, the report explicitly identifies "numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign" (p. 9). A number of these individuals later "made false statements about those contacts and took other steps to obstruct" the probe (p. 180). The report's conclusions, therefore, do nothing to absolve the Russian government.
Regarding the exploitation of social media to interfere in the election, 13 Russian citizens have been criminally charged in the United States for conspiring to “sow discord in the U.S. political system,” including the 2016 presidential election.
Three Russian companies were also indicted by a federal grand jury. One of them is the infamous Internet Research Agency, a troll factory based in St. Petersburg.