Thirteen Russians charged in alleged U.S. vote conspiracy
Trump acknowledges meddling, but says there was no collusion by his campaign
WASHINGTON — A dramatic new chapter opened Friday in the Russian election-meddling scandal as special counsel Robert Mueller described in unprecedented detail a Russian scheme to influence the 2016 American election.
It allegedly involved identity theft, bank fraud, a series of election-law violations and an astonishingly organized operation in which salaried employees worked in separate departments to spread contempt for most major American politicians not named Donald Trump.
Thirteen Russians, and three organizations, have been charged.
The allegations laid out Friday brought immediate consequences. By the day’s end, the U.S. president, who has consistently avoided acknowledging Russian election involvement, appeared to state unequivocally that Russians had indeed meddled in American affairs.
Trump made that concession with one caveat: there was no collusion from his own side. Indeed, there were no allegations of wrongdoing made Friday against either his campaign or any other Americans.
There was one exception. Mueller delivered a separate indictment of one American man. Richard Pinedo of California pleaded guilty to using a company called Auction Essistance in selling access to financial services using stolen identities.
A former head of the CIA, John Brennan, tweeted his own view that this is a turning point in the scandal: “Claims of a [Russian meddling] ‘hoax’ [are now] in tatters. My take: [It’s] implausible that Russian actions did not influence the views and votes of at least some Americans.”
Here are several highlights: • “The Translator Project.” That’s allegedly the unofficial name of a Russian operation to help Trump, hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and more generally just spread distrust of America’s political system. • The project allegedly began as early as 2014. It involved a Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency — which had a budget for graphics to be spread online; search-engine optimization; data analysis; IT; and salaries with performance bonuses. • By 2016, the unit had more than 80 employees and a monthly budget in rubles equivalent to more than $1.2 million US. • Russian operatives began monitoring American socialmedia commentary in 2014 to learn about U.S. politics. By 2016, members of the group were encouraged to criticize all presidential candidates except two. According to the indictment sheet, instructions went out to operatives not to attack Trump or Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, allegedly saying: “We support them.” • Identity fraud occurred. Operatives allegedly stole American identities. That included using U.S. socialsecurity numbers and dates of birth to obtain drivers’ licences, and PayPal accounts used to make payments. • Election laws were broken. It’s illegal for foreigners to fund U.S. election campaigns. So members of the group claimed to be Americans. They reached out to people on the Trump campaign, seeking advice on where to target ads. • Other candidates such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Clinton were clobbered with negative social-media posts and ads. • Conspirators wrote messages claiming to have organized Trump rallies. They also engaged in some campaign theatrics: They paid a real American to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida. • Ads included a form of voter suppression specifically aimed at African-Americans, with messages from imposters pretending to be other AfricanAmericans, such as: “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote.” • Social-media posts boosted Trump — as in tweets with the hashtag, “#TrumpTrain,” while working to dampen Democrats’ enthusiasm for Clinton. • Ads were not reported to the U.S. Federal Elections Commission as required by law. • The organization was funded by one of the Russians charged: Businessman Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin. • The Russians eventually realized they had been discovered. In September 2017, one defendant, Irina Kaverzina, emailed a family member, “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues … I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”
After the indictments were announced, Trump tweeted: “Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!”