Burchik hung up on me a lot in 2015, while I was investigating the Internet Research Agency, the shadowy Russian “troll farm” where, according to the indictment, Burchik has served as executive director. Back then, when I asked him about his relationship to the Agency, he denied any connection—despite the fact that leaked internal e-mails and Internet records linked him to the organization

described Burchik as a thirty-one-year-old I.T. consultant who had launched a couple of companies and who specialized in “the promotion and development of Internet projects.”