12 Russian spies charged with hacking
Indictment alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election
WASHINGTON— A federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers on Friday with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed US accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election to help Republican Donald Trump.
The indictment, which alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy involving sophisticated hacking and staged releases of documents, raises the stakes for a summit next week between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Officers of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, covertly monitored computers of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic campaign committees, and stole large amounts of data, the indictment said.
Stolen documents
“In addition to releasing documents directly to the public, the defendants transferred stolen documents to another organization, not named in the indictment, and discussed timing the release of the documents in an attempt to enhance the impact on the election,” Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told a news conference.
Friday’s indictment was secured by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into Russian involvement in the election.
It was the first by Mueller that directly charges the Russian government with meddling in the election, which Trump unexpectedly won. The Kremlin denies it interfered.
Rosenstein said he briefed Trump this week about the indictment.
‘Rigged witch hunt’
A few hours before the indictments were announced, Trump called the Mueller investigation a “rigged witch hunt” that is hurting the United States’ relationship with Russia.
Trump said he would “abso- lutely, firmly ask” Putin about the meddling at their planned meeting in Helsinki on Monday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the indictment aimed to damage the atmosphere before the summit. It said there was no evidence that the 12 people charged were linked to military intelligence or hacking.
Cancel summit
Several prominent Democratic lawmakers called on Trump to cancel the summit.
“In light of this stunning indictment by the Justice Department that these Russian conspirators attacked our democracy and were communicating with Americans to interfere in our election, President Trump should immediately cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin,” said Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Propaganda, hacking
Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia and whether the president has unlawfully sought to obstruct the Russia investigation.
US intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russia, in action ordered by Putin, used propaganda and hacking to meddle in the election to harm Clinton and eventually help Trump.
But the 29-page document describes several incidents in which the alleged Russian hackers, using the internet personas DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, were in contact with Americans.
It said Russian operatives provided direct assistance to a candidate for the US Congress, who in August 2016 requested and received from Guccifer 2.0 documents stolen from the DCCC about their opponent.
That same month, the indictment said, “the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, sent a reporter stolen documents pertaining to the Black Lives Matter movement,” which was a sensitive political issue for the Democratic Party.