FOR MEDDLING IN ’16 ELECTION
Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump,” the indictment alleges.
Sanders responded to the allegations by supporting Mueller’s ongoing investigation.
“It has been clear to everyone (except Donald Trump) that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 election and intends to be involved in 2018,” Sanders tweeted. “It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. (Vladimir) Putin and the Russian oligarchs.”
Investigators say that after the election, American citizens were unwittingly duped into participating in rallies that were set up by the Russians. The Russians also paid American citizens to do their bidding, according to the indictment.
“For example, Defendants and their co-conspirators asked one U.S. person to build a cage on a flatbed truck and another U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform,” the indictment states. “Defendants and their co-conspirators paid these individuals to complete the requests.”
There are no allegations that the Russian government was involved in the scheme, and it doesn’t claim the trolling actually led to any votes for Trump. It instead paints a picture of Russian nationals pretending to be Americans being aggressively involved in the political process.
“The nature of the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were ordinary American political activists,” Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said in a brief news conference after the indictment was released.
U.S. Rep. William Keating, a Bay State Democrat and senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, said the indictments show that Mueller should continue serving as special counsel and those who have called for his removal should “cease their activities.”
“Today’s indictment puts an end to the speculation, denials, and claims of a witch hunt. Russia interfered in our 2016 elections,” he said. “It happened, period. And it’s still happening. Facebook posts, tweets, blogs — all targeted and intentional — are happening right now.”