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REPORT | Political tweet featuring Cleveland Cavaliers parade photo came from Russian troll

The tweet with a photo of the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Championship parade as a picture of the crowd gathered outside a Trump rally in Phoenix has reportedly come from a Russian troll farm. 

According to a report from The Daily Beast, a tweeted photo of the Cavs championship parade that was passed off as a photo of a President Trump rally had it's origins from Russia.

Two months ago, President Trump held a campaign-style rally in Phoenix, Arizona. Some eyebrows here in Cleveland were raised at the time, because of the below tweet put out by the account @Ten_GOP, which referred to itself the “Unofficial Twitter account of Tennessee Republicans."

That, of course, was not a picture of the rally in Phoenix. it was a picture showing the massive crowds here in Cleveland during the Cavaliers' 2016 NBA Championship parade.

It turns out that tweet didn't originate from Tennessee, or Phoenix, or Cleveland. The account was operated from the Kremlin-backed “Russian troll farm,” or Internet Research Agency, a source familiar with the account confirmed with The Daily Beast.

According to The Daily Beast's investigation, the twitter account @Ten_GOP was created on Nov. 19, 2015, and accumulated over 100,000 followers before Twitter shut it down. Some of the Trump campaign’s most prominent names and supporters, including Trump’s campaign manager, digital director, and son, pushed tweets from the account in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The account apparently was closed on the day it sent out the tweet featuring the faux Phoenix rally/Cavs parade picture.

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