Trump campaign's digital director to meet House intelligence panel: WSJ

[October 23, 2017]    (Reuters) - The digital director for Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign is scheduled to meet the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Tuesday as the panel investigates alleged Russian meddling in last year's election, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

It would be Brad Parscale's first interview with any of the committees investigating the matter. Neither Parscale nor committee staff could immediately be reached for comment.

Foreign nationals cannot spend money on electioneering communications, but the term under U.S. law applies only to communications made by broadcast, cable or satellite - with no mention of the internet.

The use of social media platforms was part of what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was a broader Russian effort to meddle in the election campaign, an allegation the Kremlin has denied.

Several congressional committees, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller, are investigating alleged Russian interference, including any potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and Moscow. Trump has denied any such collusion.

U.S. lawmakers, alarmed that foreign entities used the internet to influence last year's election, introduced legislation on Thursday to extend rules governing political advertising on television, print and radio to social media like Facebook Inc.

Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google said on Thursday they would send their general counsels to testify on Nov. 1 before public hearings of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

Trump's election campaign spent some $70 million on highly targeted Facebook advertising last year, Parscale told Reuters this year.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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