Beneath a graying sky that foreshadowed the hurricane to come, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd shrugged.

“Never before did I think that we’d be beat up for giving people a warning and keeping people safe,” he told local television crews. “But hey, that’s okay.”

He was referring to criticism that followed a string of tweets from his office Wednesday morning saying that anyone with an outstanding warrant would not be admitted to shelters during Hurricane Irma. Though some of the tweets singled out sexual offenders and predators, others said all people with warrants would be better off turning themselves into a secure space of a different kind — jail.

“If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed,” read one tweet, using an acronym for “law enforcement officers.” The thread came from the Polk County Sheriff’s Twitter account, which uses a photo of Judd.

“If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we’ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail,” read another tweet, which received more than 7,800 likes. It had also garnered more than 7,800 replies by early Thursday morning, largely from users chastising Judd for potentially endangering people with warrants as a Category 5 hurricane ripped through the Caribbean and beamed toward Florida.

On Tuesday evening, President Trump declared emergencies in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed

— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017

If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we’ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail https://t.co/Qj5GX9XQBi

— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017

Video footage from television channel FOX 13 showed Judd surprised that the policy had drawn national criticism. He said his office had given offenders “four or five days warning” to make other arrangements if they didn’t want to turn themselves in.

“If you’re a sexual predator and a sexual offender, we’re not going to let you sleep next to any 5- or 6- or 7-year-old babies, period,” Judd said.

Just a few hours after Judd’s thread, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida posted its response on Twitter. “Most people with outstanding warrants are dealing with low-level and nonviolent offenses,” the statement read, posing no risk to people seeking refuge in emergency shelters. The statement said Judd was “exploiting a natural disaster and exploiting lives” and that he should not burnish “his Joe Arpaio-style ‘tough cop’ credentials with a series of irresponsible tweets.”

It noted that many warrants involved only unpaid parking tickets.

Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff, was pardoned by Trump last month after being convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop detaining people because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

“Sheriff Judd’s threatening tweets send the message that these individuals must choose between facing a natural disaster without aid and shelter or going to jail over things like unpaid traffic tickets,” the ACLU statement said.

According to the FOX 13 footage, Judd said those with minor outstanding warrants had the choice to “go to book in, take care of it, get out, and then you can come to the shelter.” Or they could choose not to turn themselves in and avoid the shelters altogether.

Judd was elected sheriff in Polk County in 2004, having started in the office in 1972 as a dispatcher. The headline of a 2011 Tampa Bay Times article claimed Judd made “his name on moral outrage,” having devoted much of his career to ridding the county of what he called “smut and dirt,” be it strip clubs, adult video stores or escort services.

Carrie Horstman, a public information officer for the sheriff’s office, was quoted in the Tampa Bay Times saying that the agency could not allow sexual predators to shelter with children and families. The article said Horstman authored the tweets on behalf of the sheriff’s office. Polk County has an estimated population of more than 660,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We see that people [on Twitter] are upset, but the bottom line is the shelters are here to protect people and we want people to be safe,” Horstman told the newspaper. “If you have a warrant, turn yourself into the jail and if you are a predator, find somewhere to go.”

It was only weeks ago that another hurricane — this one bound for Texas — stoked fears about who would be allowed into emergency shelters. As Hurricane Harvey made its way through the Gulf of Mexico, federal authorities and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said undocumented immigrants should not fear going to shelters.

And in a joint statement, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they would focus on “lifesaving and life-sustaining activities” rather than target undocumented immigrants at evacuation sites.

Horstman said undocumented immigrants would not be affected by the policy, according to the Orlando Sentinel. She added that the rule will also help the county keep a log of who visits the shelters during the hurricane.

The Sentinel quoted state Rep. Carlos Smith saying checking IDs of storm evacuees unfairly impacts undocumented immigrants.

“The message has already been received by the 18,000 undocumented persons in Polk County,” Smith, a Democrat, told the Sentinel. “This is not the message we need to be sending out with a disaster upon us.”

Grady Judd, Sheriff of Polk County, FL, is a miserable excuse for a human being. Happy to see people drown for taste of Arpaio/Clarke fame. https://t.co/pa6RcM5f0Z

— Eugene V. Belitsky (@Jhenya_Belitsky) September 6, 2017

Polk county sheriff Grady Judd is a fine law enforcement officer. Both of my parents grew up in Polk county I have other relatives there

— Fort surplus (@Fortsurplus) September 6, 2017

Joe Arpaio: I’m the most heartless sheriff in America.
Grady Judd: Hold my beer.

— Distracted Dad (@Distracted_Dad) September 6, 2017

This is code for discrimination in time of need, not providing public service – Sheriff Grady Judd should be fired immediately.

— Sue Hamill (@007ticktock) September 6, 2017

SMART! Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd “No Sex Offenders allowed in Hurricane Irma Shelters.” – Infowars https://t.co/WyOBK1paK7

— Watchmen News (@watchmennews911) September 6, 2017

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(Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

In this occasional series, we will bring you up to speed on the biggest national security stories of the week.

This week, Facebook announced that a Russian company had spent $100,000 on thousands of political advertisements during the presidential election campaign. It is unclear whether the firm, described as a “troll farm” based in St. Petersburg with a history of peddling pro-government messages, had any connections with the Trump campaign.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, wrote in a blog post that the sale of the ads goes as far back as 2015. The company said the ads sough to amplify “divisive and political messages,” such as gun rights and LGBT matters. However, some of the ads specifically referenced Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to people who spoke to The Washington Post.

Here’s what you need to know:

What did Facebook discover? 

Facebook began to look into political ad-buying in the spring, according to people familiar with the matter. Now, its findings reveal that potentially 3,300 of the company’s advertisements were connected with the Russian firm named Internet Research Agency, according to a Facebook official.

As many as 470 fake Facebook accounts and pages were created to peddle messages around issues related to the election, a tactic Russian trolls liberally employ to sow discontent.

Facebook declined to share any of the ads, saying that “our data policy and federal law limit our ability to share user data and content.” However, it did turn over copies of the ads as well as the identities of the buyers to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Mueller, along with a team of 16 other investigators, is overseeing an investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

What do we know so far in Russia’s efforts to influence the election?

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally responsible for a disinformation campaign to help Trump clinch the White House.

Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama, summarized that the Kremlin’s cyber efforts went beyond just hacking.

“The Russians were playing this much bigger game, which included elements like released hacked materials, political propaganda and propagating fake news, which they’d pursued in other countries,” Rhodes said.

Putin has repeatedly denied and joked about the allegations, calling them “useless and harmful chatter.” Putin has also suggested that “patriotic” Russian hackers may have been acting independently of the Russian government. That runs counter to a declassified report released in the beginning of the year that shows the Kremlin’s role to damage Clinton’s chances of winning was significant and was conducted on an unprecedented scale.

How was the Russian company able to buy the ads?

Federal laws bars foreign citizens and governments from spending money to influence elections in the United States. The Federal Election Commission explicitly states that foreign nationals, governments, political parties and corporations are not allowed to contribute funds to help any candidates in local or national elections.

However, political ads that advocate for an issue rather than a specific individual running for office fall into a legal gray area and Facebook may not have explicitly broken any laws in this instance.

What has Facebook done to stop the spread of misinformation? 

Last year, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote a post saying “more than 99%” of what people see on the social network is authentic and that the company was already working toward preventing the spread of fake news and hoaxes. Zuckerberg, along with Google, vowed to also crack down on ads that fund the phony stories. So far the company has followed through. Just last month, it announced Facebook pages will no longer be able to advertise if their shared news articles were repeatedly marked as false.

The company also purged about 30,000 fake accounts in the run up to the French election in May and “tens of thousands” more before the British election.

The campaign of eventual president Emmanuel Macron was hit with a massive cyberattack shortly before the vote. Even though U.S. intelligence agencies as well as cybersecurity firms tied the actions to the same Russian hackers who infiltrated Clinton’s campaign, French officials have denied it.

U.S. officials told Reuters in July that about two dozen Facebook accounts were created by Russian intelligence agencies attempted to spy on Macron’s campaign. Russia has denied interfering the French election.