The 37-page indictment represents a massive blow to Trump and his supporters on Capitol Hill, who for months have tried to undermine Mueller’s investigation and have dismissed the existence of pro-Trump Russian activity in the 2016 election.
Trump has maintained that there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, and called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” He has both conceded that Russia meddled in the election and said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin when he denied meddling.
Mueller’s team indicted a Russian state-controlled troll farm called the Internet Research Agency, as well as two Russian organizations that funded election interference operations — Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering — and 13 individuals accused of working with those groups.
Mueller, who was tasked with investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election, had already brought criminal charges to four aides to the Trump campaign. But Friday’s indictment represents the first charges in direct connection with election interference.
Mueller charged the defendants with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and six counts of aggravated identity theft.
The special counsel also released a plea deal on Friday with Richard Pinedo, who admitted to knowingly using other people’s identification in connection with “unlawful activity.” He was paid at least $1,000 for those activities during a one-year period, according to an unsealed court filing.
Russia’s effort to interfere with the U.S. political system dates back to at least 2014, according to the indictment. By September 2016, just before the presidential election, the monthly budget for election interference operations was more than $1.25 million.
The defendants posed as Americans to create social media pages, purchase political advertisements and stage political rallies, the indictment alleges. In some cases, the defendants stole the identities of real Americans to carry out these activities. Posing as Americans, some of the defendants “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities,” the indictment said.
Some of the people listed in the indictment traveled to the U.S. “under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence to inform Defendants’ operations” and to purchase computer infrastructure that would obscure the Russian origin of their online activities, according to the indictment. They allegedly falsely claimed they were traveling to the U.S. for personal reasons and did not fully disclose whom they worked for when applying for a visa.
Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller and has overseen the investigation, said at a press conference on Friday that there was no allegation presented in the indictment that the Russian activity actually had an impact on the outcome of the election. That essentially means that DOJ isn’t taking a position on whether the Russian activity swung the election. Rosenstein said there was no evidence presented that Americans knew they were working with Russians.
Source: Huffingtonpost News
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