The indictment on Friday of a dozen Russian military intelligence officers for hacking Democratic Party and Clinton Campaign emails in an effort to sway the 2016 election throws light on a sophisticated operation believed to have close links with Vladimir Putin.
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That put Rosenstein in charge, and he promptly appointed former FBI Director Mueller as special counsel.
“It’s on”, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
Beginning in March 2016, they allegedly used fake identities and bogus accounts to trick volunteers and employees of Clinton’s 2016 campaign and gain access to usernames and passwords that they used to steal emails and hack into other computers.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the announcement, as Attorney General Jeff Session has recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference, having been an advocate of Trump during the campaign.
“There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime”.
According to a copy of the indictment obtained by Bleeping Computer, the 12 accused are part of Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the Russian government’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the country’s military intelligence service.
In fact, according to three Republican Capitol Hill sources, conservative lawmakers in the House had the impeachment document on the floor at the very moment Rosenstein announced the indictments in front of TV cameras on Friday.
“We consider Trump a negotiating partner”, said Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov.
The Justice Department has indicted the hackers thought to be responsible for the 2016 cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee.
The top Democrat in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, did not specifically call on Trump to cancel his meeting, but demanded the US President stand up to Putin.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russian Federation, in action ordered by Putin, used propaganda and hacking to meddle in the election to harm Clinton and eventually help Trump.
“President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russian Federation takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections”.
A group of leading Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of NY, urged Mr. Trump Saturday either to cancel the summit or not to meet alone with Mr. Putin, noting that the Russian president is a veteran spy.
Trump’s suggestion that the Obama administration didn’t do anything about Russia’s meddling efforts isn’t exactly true.
“The use of Bitcoin allowed the conspirators to avoid direct relationships with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade greater scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds”, the USA said.
But aside from the court battle, the charges in the social media case and Friday’s hacking indictment serve one major objective: To shine a light on Russian officials’ allegedly criminal attempts to hurt American democracy.
The DOJ says the Russians meant to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, and all 12 defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian intelligence agency.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called for a unified approach to countering foreign meddling.
He said there was no evidence that the hacking changed any vote count. “This is consistent with what we have been saying all along”.
“You can certainly imagine a subsequent indictment in the future of an American of being part of this conspiracy”, Mariotti said.
“The Russians are nailed”.
The explosive political question within the United States remains whether any Americans were involved with the Russian active measures. Morgachev oversaw members of the department who developed X-Agent and monitored the malware implanted on computers in the DNC and DCCC networks, per the indictment.
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At one point the hackers even wrote to an organization that appears to be Wikileaks to coordinate release of the stolen documents. “There must be other Americans in the room”.
