Special counsel Mueller: Russians conducted 'information warfare' against US to help Trump win
Special counsel Robert Mueller said a grand jury had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The defendants allegedly conducted "information warfare" against the United States election process to help Donald Trump win.
The defendants used fake American personas, social media platforms, and other Internet media to advance their scheme, according to an indictment.
A federal grand jury has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, during which they boosted the candidacy of Donald Trump , special counsel Robert Mueller 's office said Friday.
The indictment says that a Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency sought to wage "information warfare" against the United States by using fictitious American personas and social media platforms and other Internet-based media.
While that effort was launched in 2014, by early to mid-2016 the defendants were "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton," the eight-count indictment charges.
"Some Defendants, posing at U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the indictment charges.
As part of their, the defendants also allegedly encouraged minority groups to either not vote for in the election or to vote for a third-party candidate. Both actions would have hurt Clinton, who received significant support from minority voters.
And after the election of Trump as president in November 2016, the defendants used fake personas to organize and coordinate political rallies in support of Trump, while also doing the same to create rallies "protesting the results" of the election, the indictment said.
On one day, Nov. 12, 2016, the defendants organized a rally in New York to "show your support for President-elect Donald Trump" while at the same time organizing a "Trump is NOT my president rally" that also was held in New York.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the defendants created hundreds of accounts using fake personas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to advance their scheme.
The accused also allegedly used a "computer infrastructure, based partly in the United States, to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection" by US authorities, the indictment said.
Rosenstein said there is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the scheme, nor is there any allegation that the scheme affected the outcome of the election.
The indictment came four days after an American named Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to using identities stolen from U.S. citizens to bypass the security systems of online payments companies. Pinedo also bought and sold bank account numbers over the Internet using stolen identities.
The charging documents against Pinedo do not mention a connection with the Russian indictment but were released by Mueller's office shortly after that indictment was disclosed. Mueller's office was creat
A section of the indictment against the Russians appears to refer to conduct by Pinedo.
"Defendants and their co-conspirators also used, without lawful authority, the social security numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of real U.S. persons to open accounts at PayPal, a digital payments company," the indictment against the Russians says.
The White House had no immediate comment on the indictment.
President Trump was briefed Friday morning personally by Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray about the indictment, before it was publicly released, according to NBC News.
Under U.S law, foreign nationals generally are barred from federal election efforts.
The indictment said that the Internet Research Agency was registered with the Russian government as a corporate entity in 2013.
"By in or around May 2014, the organization's strategy included interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with the stated goal of "spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general," the indictment said.
An announcement from Mueller's office said that the government accuses all the defendants of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.
Five defendants are charged with aggravated identity theft.
Additional reporting by Kevin Breuninger
Download a copy of the indictment here.
Read the indictment:
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