In run-up to Trump-Putin summit, Mueller charges 12 Russian officers with DNC email hack
By
Bill Van Auken
14 July 2018
A grand jury indictment announced in Washington Friday morning has charged a dozen Russians, alleged officers in the GRU, the main Russian military intelligence agency, with hacking and leaking emails from senior Democratic Party officials and the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
The charges, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into Russian “meddling” in the US election and possible complicity of the Trump campaign, were presented at a Justice Department press conference by Rod Rosenstein. The deputy US attorney general declared, “The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways.”
He added, “There will be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide and conquer us.”
Rosenstein acknowledged that the indictment included no charges of collusion between any American citizens and the alleged Russian hackers. He added, “There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.”
The timing of the indictment as well as its contents suggest that its real purposes are of a political rather than a legal character. The likelihood of any of the Russians named in the indictment standing trial in a US court is nil.
The release came as US President Donald Trump was meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle and on the eve of a planned summit Monday between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
Rosenstein said he had informed Trump of the upcoming indictment earlier this week. “I’m going to allow the president to speak for himself,” he said. “It was important for the…