These Russian money transfers were literally earmarked 'to finance election campaign of 2016'

Russian money.

The Russian foreign ministry made dozens of money transfers in 2016 with memo lines that read "to finance election campaign of 2016," BuzzFeed News reports. The FBI is now reportedly investigating those transactions, which make up a large part of more than 60 suspicious transfers that totaled over $380,000 and went to Russia's embassies around the world, including in Afghanistan and Washington, D.C.

"We had an election and the intelligence community concluded Russia interfered in it," one FBI agent told BuzzFeed News. "How could we not investigate a suspicious financial transaction that contained a memo that said, 'finance election campaign 2016?' Given the climate and what was in that memo line it would be very irresponsible for us not to investigate. It's a good lead."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.