12 Russian intel officers indicted for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign
Enlarge / Red Square in Moscow, circa 1990. (credit: DEA / W. BUSS/De Agostini/Getty Images)
The US Justice Department on Friday filed criminal indictments that accuse 12 Russian intelligence officers of carrying out the 2016 hacks on the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton. The officers-one of whom operated under the persona of Guccifer 2.0-then dispersed sensitive communications in an attempt to influence the results of the 2016 election, prosecutors alleged.
The indictments were filed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the presidential campaign of President Donald Trump and the Russian spies US intelligence agencies say interfered with the 2016 election. So far, Mueller's team has indicted 32 people, including members of a Russian company that blanketed social media with fake news stories and senior members of the Trump campaign. Friday's indictments were disclosed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a press conference in Washington, DC.
"The objective of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of US persons and entities involved in the 2016 US presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage release of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election," prosecutors wrote in the 29-page indictment. The 12 Russians also allegedly breached computers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a state board of elections, and a maker of software used to verify voter registration information. Friday's indictments come ahead of next week's scheduled meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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