(FAKE NEWS) Female Trump supporter got assaulted by Democratic party supported in Johnstown PA

Bad acting taking its roots in accounts notorious for spreading Russian disinformation

Origins

On August 30 2024, a video with two photos started circulating on social networks. Video depicts several people swearing and “beating” a lady in a t-shirt related to Trump campaign. Two photos depict alleged damage after the “assault”. No faces are visible in these materials. While we are not an experts on this, it looks like a complete set up with bad acting and is not a real beating.

Additionally, video is published as a screen cap of what appears like Instagram story by user “nutshitpapi“. While account with this username does exist on Instagram, it’s unlikely related to this campaign. This is a pattern that is commonly used in Storm-1516 campaigns.

First publication that our team was able to find was made by X account iAmTheReaLKuMaR. Unfortunately, this tweet is now deleted and we don’t have archived copy at our disposal, which makes it harder to establish a complete timeline.

Earliest existing reply to that tweet was made at 16:50 GMT

First existing quote tweet was made by “Aussie Cossack” at 16:46 GMT, which is earlier than first reply to original tweet.

Account currently has 14.5 thousands followers, which makes us think that it shouldn’t take a long time for a first reply for such provocative tweet. We think it’s safe to assume that “Aussie Cossack” posted his quote tweet very shortly after the original tweet was published.

Update 1 according to timestamp extracted from original tweet ID, it was posted at 16:40 GMT, which confirms our initial assessment

Author appears to be hosting X spaces quiet often. “Aussie Cossack” participated in spaces hosted by this account at least several times: 1 2

Distribution

Twitter/X

Following the initial publications, at 17:25 GMT video with photos was posted by Chay Bowes

And by “Aussie Cossack” at 17:41 GMT, this time as video with photos

Telegram

Earliest post on Telegram we were able to find was published at 17:23 GMT: https://t.me/theislandernews/19770 (affiliated with Chay Bowes)

Other than this, to our knowledge, story wasn’t amplified via Telegram channels affiliated with Storm-1516 campaigns until August 31, now with a link to tweet by akafacehots:

https://t.me/golosmordora/40509

https://t.me/sheyhtamir1974/98610

https://t.me/sanya_florida/19867

Conclusion

Considering the well established pattern of “instagram story screengrab” videos in Storm-1516 campaigns and rapid amplification after initial publication by “Aussie Cossack” and Chay Bowes (who are regular participators in disinformation distribution originating from this group), we can make an assumption with medium confidence that this might be an another job by Storm-1516.