Eric Holder, Scott Walker call for probe of Russian trolls targeting Milwaukee

Former Attorney General Eric Holder and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Friday called for an investigation into the activities of Russian trolls they say inflamed tensions in Milwaukee after a police shooting.

Several Twitter accounts known to be linked to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, including one impersonating the Tennessee Republican Party, posted tweets claiming Black Lives Matter activists were celebrating the murder of a member of the National Guard after riots began in August 2016, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

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However, the National Guard had not been deployed following the death of Sylville Smith, an African-American man who was shot to death by a police officer after he had thrown his gun away and was lying down unarmed.

Holder called for an investigation into the “impact” of the false social media posts by the Russian accounts.

“I think it’s incumbent upon people both at the state level and the federal level to hold hearings, to find exactly who was behind that and what was the impact of that effort,” he said, according to the Journal Sentinel.

A spokeswoman for Walker’s office told the newspaper that foreign intrusion in Milwaukee’s communities was “outrageous” and called for a full investigation by federal authorities.

“We believe it is outrageous that any foreign interests would try to cause disruption in our communities and hope the federal government will spend time looking into this interference,” said Amy Hasenberg.

In February, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency for stealing the identities of U.S. citizens and creating false social media profiles to spread false information among voters in swing states.