US indicts 13 Russians for election interference

Top officials exchange barbs

WASHINGTON, Feb 17, (Agencies): The US special prosecutor investigating Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election on Friday indicted 13 Russians for allegedly running a secret campaign to tilt the vote, prompting claims of vindication from President Donald Trump.

The indictment — which includes the first charges laid by special counsel Robert Mueller for election interference — detailed a stunning operation launched in 2014 in a bid to sow social division in the US and influence American politics “including the presidential election of 2016.”

Mueller alleges that by mid2016, the campaign — under the direction of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — became focused on boosting Trump and demeaning his rivals including Democrat Hillary Clinton.

It allegedly involved “hundreds” of people working in shifts and with a budget of millions of dollars. Three companies were also indicted.

Moscow dismissed the allegations as “absurd.”

According to the indictment, members of the group posed as US citizens on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, posting content that reached “significant numbers” of Americans.

The group was allegedly in contact with “unwitting” members of the Trump campaign, but had a broader “strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system.”

Mueller

Created

Content created by the group was retweeted by the president’s two eldest sons Don Jr and Eric, as well as other top campaign officials and members of Trump’s inner circle.

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

He added that there was also no judgment on whether the campaign “altered the outcome.”

Trump leapt on Rosenstein’s comments, claiming they vindicated his campaign team.

“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for president,” he tweeted. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!”

The allegations are a doubleedged sword for Trump, who has repeatedly dismissed claims of Russian interference as “fake news” and a “hoax” designed to take away from his election victory.

On one hand, they confirm Russia interference, but they also seem to clear his campaign of knowing involvement with at least a portion of Moscow’s efforts to influence the contest.

Russia is also suspected of hacking and leaking embarrassing Democratic emails.

Four Trump campaign officials, including his campaign manager Paul Manafort and his national security advisor Michael Flynn, have already been indicted as part of Mueller’s broader investigation.

Trump has publicly mulled firing the former FBI director and has repeatedly sought to influence his investigation through public warnings.

Allegations

On Friday, Trump seemed to say that the new indictments should put an end to allegations of campaign collusion.

“It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia,” he said in a subsequent statement issued by the White House.

Meanwhile, top Russian and American officials exchanged barbs Saturday in Germany over the US indictment of 13 Russians accused of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

H.R. McMaster, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said at the Munich Security Conference that the federal indictments showed the US was becoming “more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion.”

“As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain,” McMaster told a Russian delegate to the conference.

Just minutes before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed the indictments as “just blabber,” according to remarks through an interpreter.

“I have no response,” Lavrov said when asked for comment on the allegations. “You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying.”

The two men addressed the conference of top world leaders, defense officials and diplomats, giving more general back-to-back opening remarks. But both were immediately hit with blunt questions about the US indictment and the broader issue of cyberattacks.

In Russia, news of the indictments was met with more scorn.