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Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, and Today, Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: host June Grasso discusses news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller

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Speaker 1: is taking a closer look at how Facebook and other

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Speaker 1: social media platforms may have helped Russia influence voters in

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Speaker 1: the election. She speaks with Bloomberg News National Security editor

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Speaker 1: Larry Labert. Larry, what do we know about the Muller

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Speaker 1: probe and its focus on social media? Well, we do

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Speaker 1: know that they're considering it a very important aspect. They're

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Speaker 1: pursuing it aggressively, as Bloomberg's christ Strom disclosed, And what

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Speaker 1: we know about the underlying issue was highlighted last week

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Speaker 1: when Facebook revealed that it found about one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars in ads spending last year connected to fake accounts

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Speaker 1: that probably were run from Russia. And that's not a

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Speaker 1: huge amount, but there is a multiplier effect of course

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Speaker 1: of social media when people retweaked messages are messages on Facebook. Plus,

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Speaker 1: there seems to be an underlying theme that Russia wants

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Speaker 1: to undercut the US democracy in any way I can

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Speaker 1: so this This has implications not only for the probe

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Speaker 1: of what happened last year in the election, but what

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Speaker 1: may happen UH next year in the mid term elections

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Speaker 1: in the future. Was anyone looking into social media companies

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Speaker 1: and Russia before the election, Well, there was not as

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Speaker 1: much of a focus. Then. There was more of a

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Speaker 1: focus on these emails that were released. But even then

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Speaker 1: there was some question about what the social media networks

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Speaker 1: were picking up the whole issue that, as our president

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Speaker 1: now calls its fake news, and how that was spread

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Speaker 1: and multiplied. UH. Facebook right after the election, UH dismissed

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Speaker 1: the idea that they had any roles Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg

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Speaker 1: their chief But they've turned around on that, and the

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Speaker 1: US investigators have to although before the election there's a

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Speaker 1: sense they didn't have enough information to really focus on this.

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Speaker 1: Is it very difficult as far as finding out about

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Speaker 1: how this social media works in international espionage, Well, it

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Speaker 1: has been difficult, partly because you have so many layers

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Speaker 1: to hide behind. But they're clearly is going to be

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Speaker 1: more of an effort by US intelligence going forward. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's certainly more of an effort as well by our

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Speaker 1: European allies and others who are seeing Russian influence under

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Speaker 1: their elections and to shape their news feeds. That's Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: News National Security editor Larry Libert speaking with Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: host during Grasso. You can listen to Bloomberg Law week

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Speaker 1: days at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: And among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, former

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Speaker 1: pharmaceutical executive Martin Chokreli is going to jail. A federal

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Speaker 1: judge in New York revolke Bayo for his fraud conviction

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Speaker 1: and jailed him over a bounty Sacrelly posted on Facebook

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Speaker 1: for a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair. He still faces

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Speaker 1: up to twenty years on the front Charches Now's this

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Speaker 1: Morning's Bloomberg Lawbrary. If you can find more legal news

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Speaker 1: at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg Vienna dot Com.

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Speaker 1: Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools

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Speaker 1: there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Vienna dot com for more information