The announcements on social media all featured the same grim, coal-dust-covered visage of a miner straight from the shafts. The text beneath called on coal workers to turn out in cities across Pennsylvania to show their support for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Reporters were solicited to cover the events. Grassroots organizers and top Republican leaders — including a former governor — were encouraged to lend their support.
But unbeknownst to any of them, the invitations had come from 4,300 miles away.
Those planned October 2016 Pennsylvania rallies —
advertised under the slogan “Miners for Trump” — were just one of the efforts highlighted Thursday in special counsel
Robert Mueller’s report on Russian attempts to use social media to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.
