[I]n the wake of the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three companies for alleged interference in the 2016 election, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gave a muddled account of what his campaign knew of suspicious online activity.
“We knew what we knew when we knew it, and that’s about all that I can say,” Sanders said in an interview with Vermont Public Radio Wednesday.
Sanders has told several media outlets since the indictment was issued that someone affiliated with his campaign suspected that some social media accounts smearing Clinton were linked to Russia during the summer of 2016, and that those suspicions were relayed to Clinton’s camp.
However, that information was gathered by a campaign volunteer after Clinton had secured the nomination, without the knowledge of Sanders or his aides.
An indictment issued last week by special prosecutor Robert Mueller alleged that Russian operatives used social media to back the campaigns of Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump and to attack Hillary Clinton and other candidates.
Operatives were directed to post content on social medial and “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them),” according to court filings.
In an interview with VPR, Sanders addressed the allegations in the indictment.
“They were supporting my campaign, no. They were attacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign and using my supporters against Hillary Clinton,” he said.
Sanders referenced by name California campaign volunteer John Mattes, who ran the “San Diego for Bernie Sanders” Facebook page and began noticing unusual activity on social media in 2016.
“And he went to the Clinton campaign and he said, you know what, I think these guys are Russians,” Sanders said.
Sanders said in the interview that Mattes was “on my staff,” but a statement from the campaign later clarified that he was a volunteer.
In response to a question from a listener about why Sanders did not alert his followers to potential Russian influence if he was aware of it, he shifted the blame to Clinton’s team.
“I would say that the real question to be asked is what was the Clinton campaign [doing],” he said. “They had more information about this than we did and at this point we were working with them.”
Interviewer Jane Lindholm pressed the independent senator further on the matter.
“We knew what we knew when we knew it, and that’s about all that I can say,” Sanders said.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening, the senator said Russia’s effort during the 2016 election “deserves unconditional condemnation.” A portion of the statement, attributed to an unnamed Sanders aide, clarified that the senator learned about Mattes’ effort to alert the Clinton campaign to his concerns from a report over the weekend on the San Diego NBC affiliate.
Sanders’ staff said the senator was not available for an interview with VTDigger Thursday. He was in Illinois kicking off a four-state tour to campaign for congressional candidates and hold rallies against the tax plan Republicans passed last year, according to a spokesperson.
Longtime aide Jeff Weaver did not return multiple requests for comment. In an interview with Politico Wednesday, Weaver questioned the charges in Mueller’s indictment.
“The factual underpinning of that in the indictment is what? Zero,” he said. “I have not seen any evidence of support for Bernie Sanders.”
Meanwhile, Mattes confirmed in a telephone interview Thursday that he never reached out to Sanders’ team about his research in the months ahead of the 2016 election. By the time he was compiling his research it was September and Sanders’ campaign had largely disbanded, he said.
An investigator and former journalist who was a volunteer for Sanders in southern California, Mattes said he noticed a wave of new followers on regional Sanders campaign pages late in the summer. This was after Clinton won the nomination, which Mattes likened to “going to a movie after it’s over.” The accounts didn’t have profile information and they were posting “vicious” anti-Clinton material, he said. He eventually traced the accounts to eastern Europe, suspecting them to be from Russia.
Mattes said he did not consider reaching out to Sanders, who by then was stumping for Clinton. His first effort to contact the senator was Wednesday night, he said. Mattes’ priority was to alert Clinton’s campaign and the Obama administration.
“The victim in the fall was Hillary Clinton,” he said. “The target was Hillary Clinton, so I felt my obligation was to first alert them.”
He began corresponding with a staff member of American Bridge, an opposition research firm headed by David Brock — a close political ally of the Clintons. Mattes declined to name the staff member.
Mattes said he sent “at least” 100 emails and had “daily” phone calls with the contact. He is certain that the staff member shared the information with others, based on the emails.
“This wasn’t a fleeting thing,” he said.
The media contact for American Bridge did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Mattes said he also contacted national security staff in the Obama administration with his concerns in the fall of 2016.
Multiple efforts to reach spokespeople for Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were not successful Thursday. However, a Clinton aide denied that the campaign received information from him, according to the Politico report.
Eric Davis, political science professor emeritus at Middlebury College, said that he doubts that the allegations related to Sanders in Mueller’s indictment will have a long-term impact on the Vermont senator.
“My reading on this is there was no deliberate attempt on the part of Russian operatives to help Sanders,” he said. “What they wanted to do was discredit Clinton.”
Davis expects the information will not affect Sanders’ bid for a third term in the Senate, should he choose to run in November. Sanders has yet to announce his plans.
