RUSSIA-LINKED ADS UPDATE. WP. “Facebook says ads that ran on the company’s social media platform and have been linked to a Russian internet agency were seen by an estimated 10 million people before and after the 2016 election.”
VOTER ID AND INFLUENCE. WP. “The Web sites and Facebook pages displayed ads or other messages focused on such hot-button issues as illegal immigration, African American political activism and the rising prominence of Muslims in the United States. The Russian operatives then used a Facebook ‘retargeting’ tool, called Custom Audiences, to send specific ads and messages to voters who had visited those sites, say people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details from an ongoing investigation.”
TRIAL UPDATE. NJ. “[Menendez’s attorneys] have also said that Menendez’s meetings with government officials — though they could have aided Melgen’s business interests — were ‘what members of Congress do’ and were meant to influence future policy.”
MO: PAC GROWTH. STL. “New limits on campaign contributions may mean the end of an era of mega-donors writing huge checks to individual candidates, but the caps haven’t stopped the flow of money into Missouri politics.”
NJ: OFFICIAL SENTENCED. MH. “An official with a politically connected engineering firm won’t have to serve a jail term for his role in a scheme in which the firm made more than $1 million in illegal campaign contributions.”
NY: BOARD MUZZLE. NYP. “Albanese says he meets the criteria to participate, because he has raised and spent the minimum $174,225 for mayoral candidates.”
NY: PROBATION IN SCANDAL. WSJ. “A former managing director of institutional fixed-income sales at a broker-dealer avoided jail after admitting she gave free trips and other perks to an ex-New York State pension fund manager to steer trading business to her firm.”
TX: NEW LIMITS PROPOSED. AS. “More than a year after a judge threw out limits on when candidates for the Austin City Council may raise campaign cash, council members are looking at establishing a wider fundraising window they hope will survive challenges.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.