Mueller Indicts 13 Russians, 3 Companies For Interfering In US Election

Shortly after noon on Friday, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced an indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 presidential election and operating fake social media accounts.

In the indictment announced on Friday - the first criminal case to accuse Russians of seeking to influence the outcome of the U.S. election and support Donald Trump - Mueller describes a sweeping, years-long, multimillion-dollar conspiracy by hundreds of Russians aimed at criticizing Hillary Clinton and supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump. He charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities and accused them of defrauding the U.S. government by interfering with the political process.

Mueller charges "defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to  the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."

The indictment adds that the Russians "were instructed to post content that focused on 'politics in the USA' and to 'use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them)'."

It gets better: the defendants reportedly worked day and night shifts to pump out messages, controlling pages targeting a range of issues, including immigration, Black Lives Matter, and they amassed hundreds of thousands of followers. They set up and used servers inside the U.S. to mask the Russian origin of the accounts.

Ultimately, and this is the punchline, the goal was to disparage Hillary Clinton and to assist the election of Donald Trump.

In other words, anyone who was disparaging Clinton, may have "unwittingly" been a collaborator of the 13 Russian "specialists" who cost Hillary the election.

The Russian organization named in the indictment - the Internet Research Agency - and the defendants began working in 2014 - so one year before the Trump candidacy was even announced - to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment in Washington. They used false personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with “unwitting individuals” associated with the Trump campaign, it said.

The Russians “had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system,” according to the indictment in Washington.

The Russians also reportedly bought advertisements on U.S. social media, created numerous Twitter accounts designed to appear as if they were U.S. groups or people, according to the indictment. One fake account, @TEN_GOP account, attracted more than 100,000 online followers.

The Russians tracked the metrics of their effort in reports and budgeted for their efforts. Some, as described below, traveled to the U.S. to gather intelligence for the surreptitious campaign. They used stolen U.S. identities, including fake driver’s licenses, and contacted news media outlets to promote their activities.

The full list of named defendants in addition to the Internet Research Agency, as well as Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering, include:

  • MIKHAIL IVANOVICH BYSTROV,
  • MIKHAIL LEONIDOVICH BURCHIK,
  • ALEKSANDRA YURYEVNA KRYLOVA,
  • ANNA VLADISLAVOVNA BOGACHEVA,
  • SERGEY PAVLOVICH POLOZOV,
  • MARIA ANATOLYEVNA BOVDA,
  • ROBERT SERGEYEVICH BOVDA,
  • DZHEYKHUN NASIMI OGLY ASLANOV,
  • VADIM VLADIMIROVICH PODKOPAEV,
  • GLEB IGOREVICH VASILCHENKO,
  • IRINA VIKTOROVNA KAVERZINA,
  • VLADIMIR VENKOV
  • YEVGENIY VIKTOROVICH PRIGOZHIN

Mueller’s office said that none of the defendants was in custody.

So how is Trump involved? Well, he isn't, as it now seems that collusion narrative is dead, and instead Russian involvement was unilateral. Instead, according to the indictment, the Russian operations were unsolicited and pro bono, and included "supporting Trump... and disparaging Hillary Clinton,' staging political rallies, buying political advertising while posing as grassroots U.S. groups. Oh, and communicating "with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities."

Defendant ORGANIZATION had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants' operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign") and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

Furthermore, the dastardly Russians created fake accounts to pretend they are Americans:

Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and creating false U.S. personas, operated social media pages and groups designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and pages, which addressed divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists when, in fact, they were controlled by Defendants. Defendants also used the stolen identities of real U.S. persons to post on ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Over time, these social media accounts became Defendants' means to reach significant numbers of Americans for purposes of interfering with the U.S. political system, including the presidential election of 2016

Mueller also alleges a combination of traditional and modern espionage...

Certain Defendants traveled to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence to inform Defendants' operations. Defendants also procured and used computer infrastructure, based partly in the United States, to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection by U.S. regulators and law enforcement.

Mueller also charges that two of the defendants received US visas and from approximately June 4, 2014 through June 26, 2014, KRYLOVA and BOGACHEVA "traveled in and around the United States, including stops in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, and New York to gather intelligence, After the trip, KRYLOVA and BURCHIK exchanged an intelligence report regarding the trip."

* * *

The indictment points to a broader conspiracy beyond the pages of the indictment, saying the grand jury has heard about other people with whom the Russians allegedly conspired in their efforts.

Stocks are not happy.

Stocks

 

Rosenstein is expected to hold a briefing at 1:30pm ET. Watch it live below:

Read the indictment below (link):

Comments

Billy the Poet Never One Roach Fri, 02/16/2018 - 13:05 Permalink

I wonder if any of these Russians were behind the anti-Trump rallies of November 2016?

 

Thousands attended protest organized by Russians on Facebook

Thousands of Americans attended a march last November organized by a Russian group that used social media to interfere in the 2016 election.

The demonstration in New York City, which took place a few days after the election, appears to be the largest and most successful known effort to date pulled off by Russian-linked groups intent on using social media platforms to influence American politics.

Sixteen thousand Facebook users said that they planned to attend a Trump protest on Nov. 12, 2016, organized by the Facebook page for BlackMattersUS, a Russian-linked group that sought to capitalize on racial tensions between black and white Americans. The event was shared with 61,000 users.

As many as 5,000 to 10,000 protesters actually convened at Manhattan's Union Square. They then marched to Trump Tower, according to media reports at the time.

The BlackMattersUS-organized rally took advantage of outrage among groups on the left following President Trump’s victory on Nov. 8 to galvanize support for its event. The group’s protest was the fourth consecutive anti-Trump rally in New York following election night, and one of many across the country.   

“Join us in the streets! Stop Trump and his bigoted agenda!” reads the Facebook event page for the rally. “Divided is the reason we just fell. We must unite despite our differences to stop HATE from ruling the land.”

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/358025-thousands-attended-protest-…

In reply to by Never One Roach

SamAdams Belrev Fri, 02/16/2018 - 13:08 Permalink

Indict AIPAC.  That is the real foreign interference in ALL US elections.  Such hypocrisy.

At the very least, make them register as a foreign operation!

 

Information warfare using social media?  What, you mean like the Jewish students who are paid to shape public opinion thru social media?  This is no secret and has been in the news.  I fail to find the difference?  Psychologists call this projection, that is where you accuse others of the crimes you commit

In reply to by Belrev

overbet Shillinlikeavillan Fri, 02/16/2018 - 13:34 Permalink

Boy Hillary sure didnt get her money's worth. She shoulda hired these people. 

Is it ok for MSM for to make all of their disparaging commentary, but not ok for people to do the same? Mueller mustve forgot about the craigslist ads hiring protesters to attack Trump rallies. What a fucking clown show.

I guess that's it Mueller gets his indictments to save face and Trump is pleased its over. 

In reply to by Shillinlikeavillan

El Vaquero overbet Fri, 02/16/2018 - 13:44 Permalink

This ties directly into the October 31, 2017 testimony from Facebook, Twitter and Google regarding Russian media presence on social media.  Mueller is grasping here, and given that it talks about visas granted for short visits, I'm led to believe that most of these people are actually not on US soil to be arrested.  This means political grandstanding via an indictment that is never going to see a courtroom where the evidence can be examined and witnesses can be cross examined.  It looks like Mueller would have these people for identity theft if he had them in the US, which he probably doesn't.  

 

I'm going to get called a Russian bot over this elsewhere.  Well, maybe facetiously here.  #WeAreAllRussianBotsNow

In reply to by overbet

pods Shemp 4 Victory Fri, 02/16/2018 - 14:22 Permalink

Wow, I am going to have to keep the radio off for a couple of days.  They are going to be wall to wall on this. Maybe even bump the stories where fakely sympathetic reporter cunts (FSRC)  ask mother's if they miss their dead kids.

This is a fucking clownshow anymore. Jesus, THIS is what the investigation brought home?  Holy fuckshit, this is a joke.  Some guy had 100k followers?  Really?  Like anyone GAF about that?  We have AIPAC making candidates kneel before them and yet some guys on Tweeter fucked around.  I think that is even bullshit. If Russians really did that, they wouldn't "work in shifts" they would program some fucking bots to do this.

I can just imagine the fake outrage that that worthless kike from NY Chuckie "don't get between me and a camera" Schumer has to say about this.

This is a Matrix alright, and a cheap ass one at that.

Mueller should be taken out and horsewhipped for bringing this shit home.

Hey Mueller, I read a comment on Yahoo news that was in broken English. Go get um!

pods

In reply to by Shemp 4 Victory

doctor10 Ghost of Porky Fri, 02/16/2018 - 14:25 Permalink

 and hasShit....Russia has been in bed with  the Dems since at least 2010. 

Remember the left ALWAYS tries to implicate their opposition with exactly what they themselves have been doing.

This is their attempt "to get in front " of the coming tsunami of Russian collusion with Bammy/Hillary/JeffinK-

Uranuim One crosses BOTH sides of the aisle=and runs from NYC/DC all the way to Oregon

In reply to by Ghost of Porky

Ghost of PartysOver IH8OBAMA Fri, 02/16/2018 - 13:40 Permalink

Not a lawyer but this looks lame to me.  Unless Mueller is holding back of course. 

Trump may be innocent on all this but how many around him are going to get snared for totally unrelated issues to the investigation.  It appears to me that Mueller is trying to wall of Trump form all his supporters and that is not a good thing.  Time for Trump to give Asssange a free ride for the DNC Hack info.

 

Meanwhile not a single person associated with Hildabeast is being investigated.  Go figure!

In reply to by IH8OBAMA