Twitter Files: Company Shocked by False ‘Russian Bot’ Allegations from Deep State Linked Hamilton 68

The latest batch of the Twitter Files shows that senior officials at the company, including the much-maligned Yoel Roth, were shocked at false allegations that American and British users of the platform were part of Russian influence operations.

The allegations came from Hamilton 68, a “dashboard” claiming to identify Russia-linked accounts on Twitter that was funded by the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

The project was led by Clint Watts, a former counterintelligence official at the FBI. The ASD advisory board at the time included former NSA chief Michael Chertoff, who was tapped to review the Biden Administration’s “disinformation governance board” last year, former Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, and arch-neoconservative Bill Kristol.

7.The ASD advisory council includes neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, ex-Hillary for America chief John Podesta, and former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security. pic.twitter.com/Nug3CpF6iK

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023

Senior Twitter employees were shocked at the inaccuracy of Hamilton 68, which they found did nothing but falsely label legitimate conservative discourse as “Russian influence.”

Despite his well-documented leftist sympathies, Twitter trust & safety official Yoel Roth took a principled stance, calling Hamilton 68’s findings “bullshit,” going so far as to suggest that Twitter push back publicly against it.

Hamilton 68, wrote Roth, “falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots.”

“Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian,” continued Roth.

4.“Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian.” pic.twitter.com/g7Ozzj4ST8

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023

In another email, Roth even argued that the company should warn targeted users that they had been falsely accused of being Russian assets.

“Real people need to know they’ve been unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse,” wrote Roth.

13.“These accounts,” they concluded, “are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”

“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”

“Hardly illuminating a massive influence operation.” pic.twitter.com/LMrgWVKe7k

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023

Twitter executives concurred with Roth.

These accounts,” they concluded, “are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”

“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”

“Hardly illuminating a massive influence operation.”

However, some voices in the company, notably Carlos Monje and Emily Horne, warned of the potential political blowback if they pushed back against ASD.

20.“I also have been very frustrated in not calling out Hamilton 68 more publicly, but understand we have to play a longer game here,” wrote Carlos Monje, the future senior advisor to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. pic.twitter.com/JvfSkyUlfL

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023

We have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly,” said Horne.

“I also have been very frustrated in not calling out Hamilton 68 more publicly, but understand we have to play a longer game here,” said Monje.

Both Horne and Monje now work for the Biden Administration. Monje is a senior advisor to transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Horne is a spokeswoman for the White House and the National Security Council.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.

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