Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office said Friday that a grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, during which they boosted the candidacy of Donald Trump.
The indictment says that the defendants by early to mid-2016 were “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”
The indictment said “the organization,” known as the Internet Research Agency LLC, “sought, in part, to conduct what it called ‘information warfare against the United States of America’ through fictitious U.S. personas on social media platforms and other Internet-based media.”
“By in or around May 2014, the organization’s strategy included interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with the stated goal of “spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” the indictment said.
An announcement from Mueller’s office said that the government accuses all the defendants of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.
Five defendants are charged with aggravated identity theft.
Friday nothing burger for the MSM to crow on all weekend.
No indictment of Steele who paid Russians for lies He isnt an American citizen and desperate that Trump would not become President. He is the easiest conviction.
Main takeaways:
1. There was ZERO collusion between Trump and the Russians.
2. Russian interference had ZERO impact on the election.
3. This all happened on (“I’ll have more flexibility after the election) Obama’s watch.
4. The dems and the MSM have been lying to the American people for over a year.
Now it’s time to go after the real colluders and criminals. The options of who to start with are abundant!
@another vet: Great comment.
These “pranksters & dirty tricksters” were hard at work well before Donald Trump made his decision to run, so, he wasn’t behind it…..at all.
If people recall, Obama did the same thing, discouraging white male voters from bothering to come out to vote.
If the Russians were helping anyone it was Obama who subscribes to Cloward – Piven: Breakdown our country by adding heavy, expensive burdens, even like they did with their BLM work destroying cities.
@Nanny G:Funny how CIA Director Pompeo said the Russians have been meddling in our elections since at least the 1970’s and for some reason there weren’t any “investigations” launched after the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.
Since President’s are elected through the Electoral College, I would like to know if the efforts of these Russians was primarily focused on Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin or Michigan. Without these states, Clinton would have won.
If they did focus on the battleground states, how did they actually persuade the voters there to vote Trump instead of Clinton? Can we bottle it and use it for the next election?
Russia’s troll identities were more sophisticated than anyone thought
@Greg:
But how will Madcow link this with the POTUS?
@another vet: There wouldn’t have been any investigation now either if Hillary had won.
Identity theft,
Fraudulent Social Security,
foreigners trying to influence our election.
Sounds like a HUGE number of arrests could be made ….
against Hispanic illegal aliens!
They commit all of the above in far greater numbers than a few Russians.
Add in vote fraud and voting while not being citizens and you could really make a case that they were the real threat to our election.
@Nanny G: Just like Hillary colluding with the Russians isn’t collusion because she’s a dem, those illegals who vote aren’t an issue because they vote for dems. Two sets of standards. One for the left. Another for the rest of us. No wonder they fawn over communist regimes the latest one being North Korea.
This began under Obama… and nothing done to stop it. Kerry provided the permits for all these Russians to enter the country.
OH LOOK!!! TRUMP!!
@Nanny G: There is the claim about illegals that the only crime they did was crossing the border illegally, otherwise they are stand up citizens.
I have always wondered though, how many perjuries or felonies did they commit with false SS numbers on forms; potential ID theft; etc. You know, the forms you have to submit for a ton of things that say it is a crime to give false information.
Falsifying information on government forms is like lying to the FBI and we know how the government feels about that….(it’s ok to lie if you promise to vote Democrat)
@SouthernRoots:
Many. Where my wife worked she got a phone call from a woman in California. Seems one of the workers back in the plant was using her identity and filing tax returns in her name, leaving her with thousands in taxes to spend. When my wife notified her boss, he fired the woman instead of turning her over to authorities (apparently she was illegal… and a criminal)… because he’s a liberal.
So, the woman in California… a CITIZEN… just gets to keep paying the price of an illegal immigrant stealing her identity.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Just last week, someone opened a bank account in my name. Luckily, I was notified and was home and able to shut it down.
A few years ago, I went to file our taxes and it was denied because someone had already filed a return with my wife’s SS and received a refund. We had to go through the fraud routine and do all the paper work to get the government to lets us file our tax return. Luckily, we weren’t in a hurry because we did have to pay. We still have to go through the process to confirm our identities.
A few years before that our bank account was cleaned out by someone who hacked our info somehow. They changed my login information to our account – we received a letter from the bank telling us about the change of password and address. I still think it happened when I had to call the bank about something and I had to confirm my identity. I did this over my cell phone. This was the only time all that information was in one place. A week later we were cleaned out. To this day, I do not do banking verbally over a wireless phone. (The bank did help us change our account number and restored our balance.)
Identity theft is real and even in small uses can be a big burden to others.
The primary point of my last post was that crossing the border illegally (or overstaying a visa) was not the ONLY, of last thing they did illegally. I don’t know if the folks that hit us were illegal, but the common aspect of identity theft or fraud is enough for me to have no sympathy for anyone who uses it.
For your example, that person committed a felony every time they filed a tax return with false information, yet “they’re doing no harm, just trying to get by and make a living”.
Just about everyone in the US now has to pay a service such as lifelock because our information was hacked from a credit reporting agency, an agency no one has a choice to join or have our personal information sent to. Paying Cash for the house we bought, they wanted my SS number, I politely refused, the look on their faces was precious, the transaction still proceeded. I do no online finances, no financial information is saved in the magic box hooked to an internet connection, but because Experian was hacked my info is out there. A company I never gave permission to get my ss, address, date of birth ect….
The government should have made an example of them and shut them down.
@kitt, #15:
I’ve now lost count of the number of times my personal information may have been stolen, in spite of all the precautions I’ve taken. The Equifax hack really made me angry. By what right do these people even have my personal information to begin with? I found an address error on their free credit history report–most likely somebody’s innocent transcription error–but they wouldn’t allow me to correct it online. They wanted me to mail them a paper request for correction, along with photocopies of my SS card and driver’s license to prove my identity. As if any sane person was going to do that, after these idiots already lost control of millions of people’s personal information! I decided they could keep their error. Maybe it’s safer if they lose incorrect information. (Which is why I now use a fictitious DOB on any social media account.)
I put a freeze on all three credit report bureaus and intend to keep it that way, figuring that would at least keep anyone from applying for new credit cards or loans in my name. I thought about credit monitoring, but got angry when I discovered that service is a real money-maker for Equifax. It’s like they’re demanding money to solve the problem that they themselves are creating. In my opinion, they should all be investigated.
Like you, I once did no banking online. Then one day I talked to a bank rep, who pointed out that if I didn’t get an online password for my account myself, it would be possible for someone else to impersonate me and do so. It would be harder for someone to steal access if I set up my own with a strong password. This was also the only way I could stop paper statements from showing up each month in my mailbox. Mailboxes make for easy pickings by identity thieves.
What really makes me angry is the increasing lack of choices, and being so much at the mercy of bureaucratic and corporate carelessness. Every computer vulnerability I’ve so far had to address has resulted from someone else’s negligence; every data loss has been somebody else’s doing. It’s like all of our personal castles are constantly under attack from every possible angle. Don’t get me started about telephone marketers and scammers.
@Greg: Online your info is for sale google, twitter, facebook countless other ways. Now sites block you for an ad blocker or stealth mode. I also cover my camera take all my paperwork to camp for burning cause shredding isnt good enough. I personally have never had an issue, knock on wood.
Had Experian suffered any punishment it would put the other 2 agencies on notice.
But nada no consequences.
Mastercard International has never been hacked but they dont have anyones data, the banks do. The security at MA is mind blowing.
@Greg: I see they have you fooled also. The USA can not write laws to cover what Russians do in Russia or anywhere else in the world other than the USA. If a Russian writes a political ad about a US candidate and pays to have it put in an American posting, Newspaper, tv, etc. it doesn’t matter if the statements in it are true or not. Almost all political ads posted in the US, even by US citizens are full of crap and lies, etc. It is not against a US law for a Russian to speed on the city streets in Moscow. Mueller can charge them with it, if he chooses to, but I doubt he would get a guilty verdict. Is it against the law in Russia for a Russian to steal a US citizen’s ID? I doubt it. Now if he steals it and comes over here and gets arrested, then they might get a guilty verdict. But speeding in Moscow is not against a US Law. I’m surprised Mueller, or any lawyer would have wasted the time doing the documents I’ve seen in this case. I didn’t check, but they are likely typed on toilet paper so they can be used for something.