Freelance services where transactions are anonymous. >> did you speak to anybody on the phone? >> i did not. >> that ability for him to remain anonymous is a boom for influence operations. >> covert influence has been around, but there's been an explosion of that capability. >> three months later, the same contact asked him to stage another one. this time against a u.s. ban on goods produced in a region in chi china. >> when we were asked about that project, i personally, a lot of people on my team, felt that america was doing the right thing by stopping production in that region of the world.