12 Russian Intelligence Officers Indicted For Interfering With 2016 Election, Hacking D.N.C.

Ob Friday morning, the Justice Department announced that 12 Russian military officers have been indicted on charges of interfering with the 2016 election by hacking Democrats’ emails and computer networks.

According to the indictment, the conspirators allegedly “hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee” as well as infiltrated the email of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. Under the virtual aliases of Guccifer 2.0 and DC LEAKS, they then staged the release of tens of thousands of stolen documents and emails in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

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The defendants were all supposedly acting in “their official capacities” as members of the GRU, a Russian federation intelligence agency part of the main intelligence directorate of the Russian military. “Both [aliases] created and controlled by Russia’s GRU,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The group also allegedly hacked into the website of a state election board to steal U.S voter data as well as the computers of a U.S. company “that supplied software used to verify voter registration information” read the indictment.

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Still, Rosenstein clarifies, “There is no allegation that the conspiracy altered the vote count or changed any election result.”

Prosecutors also claimed the Russian hackers allegedly corresponded with “several” Americans, but Rosenstein said there was no evidence that the Americans were aware that they were corresponding with Russians. “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime,” asserted Rosenstein.

The indictment comes just two days before President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Meanwhile, Putin has previously denied any meddling in the election.