Last week's acknowledgment by Facebook officials that Russian entities bought $100,000 worth of ads from them over the past two years has created yet another extension into the Trump-Russia investigation. The investigation - currently being conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller - has expanded into various queries, such as possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials who interfered with 2016 presidential election.

It's been reported that Facebook officials turned over their data for the ads to Mueller's team last Wednesday when they acknowledged the purchase.

This was after congressional investigators had been trying to get Facebook to cooperate with investigators who had requested those ads but the social media company claimed their privacy policy. They said they would only release the data under a subpoena, which is likely how the special prosecutor got the data.

Interest in interviewing Trump campaign official

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) who is a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had reportedly been trying to get Facebook to cooperate with their investigation. The investigators were primarily interested in the wording of those ads which would further confirm that a foreign entity had violated Federal Election Law and swayed voters against Clinton.

Congressional Investigators have expressed interest in speaking with executives from social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter. But they have also been interested in speaking with Brad Parscale, who was the former director for the Trump digital campaign to see if and how he was involved.

Individuals and entities in the U.S.

who are found to have aided a foreign entity to interfere in an election are generally seen as committing a federal crime. Knowing full well that Russian sources were involved and also breaking election law, it would be far more difficult to go after a foreign entity. But Brad Parscale has confirmed in recent months that he would be speaking with the House Intelligence Committee soon while he also flatly denied that he aided Russians.

This denial is to be expected, especially since Trump campaign officials have repeatedly denied involvement with Russian officials before it was discovered they had lied.

Reasons to already 'suspect' Parscale

Such was the case with former members of the Trump campaign Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Jeff Sessions - who is now President Trump's attorney general - and even Trump Jr, who lied about meeting Russian officials last year. Trump Jr. was recently interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee where he used the excuse that he could not recall his father dictating the initial response he used for why he decided to meet with Russian officials. Lawmakers reportedly came out of the five-hour interview session with Trump Jr.

last week saying that the interview "did not ease their concerns".

Sessions has publicly also "not recalled" other events when he's been questioned by lawmakers. This is just another example of a devoted Trump surrogate who had already contradicted themselves about meeting with Russian officials. Last November after Donald Trump won the election, Wired interviewed Parscale about how influential social media was for the Trump campaign. Parscale said that Facebook was "our biggest incubator" and that it allowed them to generate the bulk of their fundraising which was said to be $250 million. The former digital director said that the $90 million that the Trump campaign funneled to his firm mostly went towards digital advertising, which he said went to ads for both Facebook and Twitter.

Parscale ran his digital strategy business from San Antonio, TX under Giles-Parscale before he reportedly relocated to Florida. While Brad Parscale claims that he moved for better flight access, it was suggested that many in San Antonio refused to do business with him for being part of the Trump campaign. It's also been stated that Parscale moved the business into "little Mosco" a Russian community in Miami. Parscale has reportedly already received payment of 1.5 million from the Trump campaign this year and will be involved with the campaign's digital strategy for the 202 election.
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