Donald Trump’s campaign and transition teams have been accused of colluding with Russian agents. The president – who has previously denounced Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt" – denies wrongdoing. Mueller is conducting a criminal inquiry into the affair. One aide has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI while two others have been charged with federal crimes. The indictment broadly echoes the conclusions of US intelligence agencies. In January 2017 an intelligence community assessment found that Russian had meddled in the US election, and that its goals eventually included aiding Trump in his bid to enter the White House. Donald Trump: 'no collusion!' Following the indictment, the US president tweeted to insist that "the Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!". He did acknowledge, however, a Russian "anti-US campaign" which he said had begun in 2014, "long before" he announced his intention to run for the White House.Grand Jury Indicts Thirteen Russian Individuals and Three Russian Companies for Scheme to Interfere in the United States Political System https://t.co/P0BA7UY8lC
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) February 16, 2018
"This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a news briefing on Friday. "The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed." He also said there was no allegation in the charges that the defendants' behaviour had altered the outcome of the election. The section of the indictment which talks of Russians contacting Trump officials describes the latter as "unwitting". The indictment brought a strong condemnation of the alleged Russian activity from both Republicans and Democrats. “We have known that Russians meddled in the election, but these indictments detail the extent of the subterfuge. These Russians engaged in a sinister and systematic attack on our political system. It was a conspiracy to subvert the process, and take aim at democracy itself,” said House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement. “For all those who have been asking ‘where is the evidence of a crime?’ – this is it. This is the criminal conspiracy. This is what President Trump and his allies have repeatedly called a ‘hoax’ and ‘fake news’. Today’s indictment shows precisely how the Russians worked to help the Trump campaign, in startling and extensive detail,” said Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings. The evidence contained in indictment has been dismissed by the Kremlin. “Thirteen people interfered in the US elections?! Thirteen against an intelligence services budget of billions? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest developments and technologies? Absurd? “Yes,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Maria Zakharova in a Facebook post. Facebook and Twitter have both declined to comment on the indictment. The indictment includes the following allegations: From St Petersburg, the Internet Research Agency began plotting to interfere in the US election from 2014, and went on to support the Trump campaign and disparage Clinton This was part of a wider heavily-funded interference campaign called ‘Project Lakhta’ Russians posed as US citizens, hid their origins, stole identities, staged rallies and used social media and email accounts to meddle in the election Some ‘communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign’ As part of a highly organised structure, defendants travelled to the US, gathered intelligence, and set up computer infrastructure that masked its Russian location Several individuals posted social media content posing as American citizens or organisations, and contacted US activists to gather intelligence Through fraud and deceit they created hundreds of social media accounts to develop fictitious American ‘leaders of public opinion’ They worked in shifts round the clock, targeting posts according to US time zones; specialists covered topics such as foreign policy and the economy On social media group pages were set up to target issues such as immigration with names such as ‘Secured Borders’, ‘Blacktivist’ and ‘Army of Jesus’ – and appearing to be genuine political parties with names such as ‘Tennessee GOP’ One group, ‘United Muslims of America’, promoted a rally purporting to back Clinton but which was designed to give the impression that she backed Sharia Law Other Facebook groups and false identities were used to organise rallies push for Trump in Florida, followed by New York and Pennsylvania The accounts attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and were backed up by sophisticated tracking; poor performers were hauled up – one for failing to attack Hillary Clinton sufficiently They attacked not just Clinton (Russian-produced hashtags included ‘#Hillary4Prison’) but backed her rival Bernie Sanders - and also attacked Trump’s Republican rivals Space was bought on US computer servers to enable connections from Russia, hiding their location Fake US identities were set up using data from real US citizens who knew nothing of it US minority groups were targeted to encourage them not to vote, or to vote for third party candidates rather than Clinton; allegations of Democratic Party voter fraud were promoted The activities continued after Trump’s election – aimed at stirring up feeling both in support of AND against the president-elect before he took office There was an organised campaign to destroy evidence. SOURCE: euronews ---DECRYPTED---Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018