Commander-in-cheat!
Mueller indicts 13 Russians for trying to sway election for Trump Playmate claims affair with Don year after he married Melania
SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller’s office charged more than a dozen Russian nationals with an elaborate plot to sow political discord and interfere in the 2016 election, the Department of Justice said on Friday.
A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted 13 Russians and three Kremlin-linked companies, and charged them with a years-long multimillion-dollar effort to disrupt the U.S. election that was aimed in part at helping Donald Trump.
“The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday. “We must not allow them to succeed.”
He added that the indictment does not include allegations that the plot swayed the outcome of the vote.
The charges were sought through Mueller, who has been tasked with investigating Russian efforts to interfere in the election and whether there were ties to the Trump campaign.
“Defendants operations included supporting the presidential campaign on then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” the indictment says. The operatives also made contact with “unwitting” Trump campaign officials, the court papers say. Trump took that as vindication. “Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” Trump tweeted. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!”
But the indictment cautions that the Russians worked “with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury” to defraud the United States.
The efforts of the foreign “organization,” known as the Internet Research Agency, in the indictment date back to at least 2014.
“The defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the United States with the stated goal of spreading distrust toward the candidates and the political system in general,” Rosenstein (photo right) said.
The group spent millions of dollars on the effort, masking their presence by using a “virtual private network” based in the U.S.
Some of the schemers even took a road trip across the country to conduct research as they employed specialists to fine-tune social media posts to “ensure they appeared authentic,” and stole the identities of real Americans to purchase online ads.
Hundreds were employed to create and share anti-Clinton memes and posts online that were shared by thousands of Trump supporters in the U.S., according to the indictments.
Millions were spent on online advertisements and social media sites to promote Facebook and Instagram groups that covered a range of hot-button issues.
The fake accounts included groups like “Secured Borders,” “Woke blacks,” “United Muslims of America” and “Army of Jesus.”
“This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet,” Rosenstein said.
After the election, the schemers allegedly staged competing proand anti-Trump rallies, including some in New York, Rosenstein said.
The indictment says the group also paid a person in the U.S. to build a cage on a flatbed truck and dress as Hillary Clinton wearing a prison uniform at Trump rallies.
The indictment charges the Internet Research Agency, a notorious Russian statebacked “troll farm,” was behind the disinformation campaign.
The company used Russian bots to spread fake news and pro-Trump propaganda on social media, the court papers say.
By February 2016, they’d laid out an outline of “themes” to their social media army, for the election, directing them to “communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton” and “denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.” Specialists were instructed to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest” except Sen. Bernie Sanders and Trump because “we support them.” They also advocated for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, buying an ad on Instagram to bolster her that assured, “Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote.” Among the plotters is Russian businessman Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, who is accused of using his companies, Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering, to fund the agency’s meddling.
Prigozhin, 56, has been dubbed “Putin’s chef” by Russian media because his restaurants and catering business host dinners between Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign officials. He shrugged off the allegations, telling Russian state media that “Americans are very impressionable people” who “see what they want to see.”
Some of the social media scam artists are charged with posing as Americans and making contact with “unwitting” Trump campaign officials, the court documents say. l
l Mueller indicts 13 Russians in scandal
All of the Russians are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants face conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and five defendants are charged with aggravated identity theft, according to the Justice Department.
Separately, a California man pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud in connection with Mueller’s probe, according to an agreement unsealed on Friday.
Richard Pinedo’s attorney told the Associated Press that his client thought he was helping people fraudulently open online bank accounts, but had no idea “his customers were foreign nationals” trying to meddle in the election.
Rosenstein said that U.S. officials have had no communication with Russia regarding the indictments or any extraditions, and they’d follow normal procedures.
The charges are the first from Mueller directly related to the 2016 election.
Trump has publicly seethed as the Russia probe haunts his presidency.
He has called the investigation a “Democratic hoax” and a “phony cloud” over his administration.
Mueller was appointed special counsel by Rosenstein last May after the President fired then-FBI director James Comey. Trump has reportedly mulled dismissing both men.
The White House said Friday that Trump is “glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia.”
Experts cautioned that the indictments could be an omen of things to come.
“A document of such breadth and detail may also be designed to trouble other, unidentified persons who may have been reluctant to cooperate with the special counsel or enter into plea discussions,” said Jack Sharman, a white-collar defense attorney who served as special counsel to the House financial services committee for the Whitewater investigation involving Bill Clinton.
Others said that the documents lay out the path for Mueller to possibly target Trump or others in his immediate orbit.
“The indictment does not allege that the Trump campaign encouraged or participated in these activities; although neither does it expressly deny that this happened,” said lawyer Harry Sandick.