David D. Kirkpatrick

Weeks before the Trump administration ended, Jared Kushner and Steven Mnuchin met with future investors on official trips to the Middle East.

Before committing $2 billion to Mr. Kushner’s fledgling firm, officials at a fund led by the Saudi crown prince questioned taking such a big risk.

The oligarch’s billions and his Kremlin connections secured him favors and elite status in the West. Now they’ve landed him on a sanctions list.

Using machine learning, separate teams of computer scientists identified the same two men as likely authors of messages that fueled the viral movement.