{"id":411,"date":"2018-02-16T18:55:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T18:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=411"},"modified":"2018-02-16T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T19:50:00","slug":"mueller-indicts-13-russian-nationals-crimes-related-2016-election-meddling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/16\/mueller-indicts-13-russian-nationals-crimes-related-2016-election-meddling\/","title":{"rendered":"Mueller Indicts 13 Russian Nationals with Crimes Related to 2016 Election-Meddling"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, February 16, 2018, The DOJ Special Counsel’s Office released a 37-page\u00a0indictment<\/a> charging the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, as well as thirteen Russian nationals who carried out the organization\u2019s mission in the U.S, with crimes related to meddling in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that the organization began its operations targeting the U.S. as early as 2014. Posing as U.S. activists, the defendants operated social media accounts that commented on polarizing U.S. political and social issues, and attempted to cultivate a U.S. audience. The defendants controlled pages on a range of divisive issues on both sides of the political spectrum, such as Black Lives Matter, border security, and religion. The indictment also alleges that some of the defendants traveled to the U.S. under false pretenses to collect intelligence.<\/p>\n

After establishing social media accounts and personas, the defendants allegedly purchased advertisements related to the 2016 presidential election on U.S. social media sites. Most of the advertisements disparaged then-candidate Hillary Clinton or praised Donald Trump. One advertisement read: \u201cHillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.\u201d Another stated: \u201cAmong all the candidates Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The indictment explicitly states that the Internet Research Agency\u2019s main goal was to \u201csow discord in the U.S. political system,\u201d in part by bolstering Donald J. Trump\u2019s presidential campaign and disrupting Hillary Clinton\u2019s. Furthermore, some of the defendants, posing as U.S. persons, allegedly \u201ccommunicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.\u201d In one particularly harrowing example, some of the defendants, by posing as U.S. persons, purportedly\u00a0 communicated with U.S. grassroots activists based in Texas, and learned from the U.S. activists that they should focus their targeting efforts on \u201cpurple states like Colorado, Virginia & Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the 13 defendants, all are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., three are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and five are charged with aggravated identity theft.<\/p>\n

You can access the full indictment here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, February 16, 2018, The DOJ Special Counsel’s Office released a 37-page\u00a0indictment charging the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, as well as thirteen Russian nationals who carried out the organization\u2019s mission in the U.S, with crimes related to meddling in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election. The indictment alleges that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-intelligence-and-surveillance","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nMueller Indicts 13 Russian Nationals with Crimes Related to 2016 Election-Meddling | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/16\/mueller-indicts-13-russian-nationals-crimes-related-2016-election-meddling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mueller Indicts 13 Russian Nationals with Crimes Related to 2016 Election-Meddling | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday, February 16, 2018, The DOJ Special Counsel’s Office released a 37-page\u00a0indictment charging the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, as well as thirteen Russian nationals who carried out the organization\u2019s mission in the U.S, with crimes related to meddling in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election. 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