Thread by @pleasesaveour

The FBI warned OANN, @SenRonJohnson and Giuliani in late 2019 that they were the target of a Russian influence operation aimed at circulating falsehoods intended to damage President Biden politically ahead of last year’s election.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Despite the alert, Giuliani went forward in Dec 2019 with a planned trip to Kyiv where he met with a Ukrainian lawmaker whom the U.S. government later labeled “an active Russian agent” and sanctioned on grounds he was running an “influence campaign” against Biden

Defensive briefings, like the one given to Johnson in Aug 2020, are given to people to alert them that they are being targeted by foreign governments for malign purposes, former officials said. But they’re also used “to see how they respond to that,” 😎

In late 2019, before Giuliani’s trip to Kyiv, U.S. intel warned the Trump White House that Giuliani was the target of a Ru influence op. Officials became concerned after obtaining evidence, including comms intercepts, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to

Russian intelligence. The warnings led then-national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien to caution Trump that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia.

Despite the warning Giuliani met with Derkach again in NY in Feb 2020

@SenRonJohnson has said he and his staff met with another Ukrainian national, former diplomat Andriy Telizhenko (who has since been sanctioned for election interference), who pushed the unfounded allegation that it was Ukr rather than Ru that interfered in the 2016 election

Yea, I'm thinking Ronny isn't gonna run for reelection. He'll be busy.