In October 2016, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. That material was shared over social media almost certainly had a far more damaging effect than ads Russian trolls purchased. In 2020, hostile actors pored over the same emails to create a damaging narrative. Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, wants to create a narrative about Russian interference in the 2016 election. His goal is political; he wants to reinforce the sense on the right that government actors in the “Deep State” conspire. What the actual evidence shows is an often ad-hoc response to what happened in 2016.
