Friday, February 16, 2018

The Russian indictment

Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were charged Friday with an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election through social media propaganda aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump and harming the prospects of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, prosecutors announced Friday.

The indictment, brought by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, represents the most direct allegation to date of illegal Russian meddling during the election.

The indictment arises from Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the election and whether there was improper coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The charges are similar to the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community, which months after the election described a Russian government effort to meddle in the election on Trump's behalf.

The charges say that Russians also communicated with "Unwitting individuals" associated with the Trump campaign and other political activists to coordinate activities.

According to the indictment, the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, started interfering as early as 2014 in U.S. politics, extending to the 2016 presidential election.

Some of the Russians traveled to the United States "Under false pretenses" to collect intelligence, and they also used computer infrastructure based partly in the United States to hide the Russian origins of their work.

 The indictment:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4380517-Russia-probe-indictments.html

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