Politics Alert: Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show

An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 — including days before the November election — urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russians and Russian Americans. The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia's equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and Dan Scavino, the campaign's social media director, in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump's campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages. While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. An attorney for Trump Jr. said his client forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino early in the year and could not recall any further discussion about it.

Democracy Dies in Darkness     Politics Alert Thu, Dec 7, 2017, 10:25 PM     Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 — including days before the November election — urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russians and Russian Americans. The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia's equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and Dan Scavino, the campaign's social media director, in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump's campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages. While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. An attorney for Trump Jr. said his client forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino early in the year and could not recall any further discussion about it. Read more » Advertisement You received this email because you signed up for news alerts from The Washington Post. Manage my newsletters and alerts | Unsubscribe Privacy Policy | Help ©2017 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071