US Investigators Gained Access To Twiter, Facebook Messages Of Russia's GRU - Mueller

�WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2019) US investigators gained access to the private Twitter and Facebook messages of alleged members of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, in which they discussed disseminating data stolen from the US Democratic Party, Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed in his redacted report released to the public on Thursday.

"GRU officers also used the DCLeaks Facebook account, the Twitter account @dcleaks, and the email account [email protected] to communicate privately with reporters and other US persons," Muller said in the report. "GRU officers using the DCLeaks persona gave certain reporters early access to archives of leaked files by sending them links and passwords to pages on the dcleaks.com website that had not yet become public."

It remains unclear how US investigators gained access to the private messages, or whether Facebook and Twitter gave the Special Counsel access to the accounts.

Mueller alleged in his report that the GRU eventually released documents it stole from Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to WikiLeaks, using encrypted channels and the online personas DCLeaks and Gucciefer 2.0.

"The GRU also used the Guccifer 2.0 persona to release documents directly to reporters and other interested individuals," Mueller said.

The accounts were set up on Facebook, Twitter and Google networking services, according to the report.

According to the report, GRU agents stole over 70 gigabytes of data from the Democratic campaign. The stolen documents included the DNC's opposition research into then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

"Unit 26165 officers appear to have stolen thousands of emails and attachments, which were later released by WikiLeaks in July 2016," the Special Counsel's findings suggested.

Additionally, the report claims that the Guccifer 2.0 account reached out to a former Trump campaign official asking whether this person found anything unusual in the data posted. The official, whose name is not revealed, replied that the information was "pretty standard."

The intrusions into the Democratic Party documents were carried out by GRU military units 26165 and 74455, the report alleged.

Earlier on Thursday, US Attorney General William Barr said Mueller did not find any evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. Barr also said Mueller's report did conclude that Russia tried to influence the election, but emphasized that no American was part of those efforts.

Russia has repeatedly refuted claims of interference in the US political system, saying the allegations were made up to excuse the loss of Trump's opponent as well as deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.