(CNN) A former Obama White House official says the US government could have thwarted a Russian troll group's attempts to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election. The Kremlin-linked troll group, known as the Internet Research Agency, was charged last month by special counsel Robert Mueller. Bruen said he took part in a US government task force to counter the Russian meddling in Ukraine's election. "We actually saw that the Russian bots and the Russian propagandists receded because we were contesting this space, because we were pushing out some pretty effective content." JUST WATCHED NSA chief: Need authority to stop Russian cyber threat Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH NSA chief: Need authority to stop Russian cyber threat 01:45Open secretThe existence of the Internet Research Agency was hardly a secret.

Source: CNN March 26, 2018 23:48 UTC