By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Twelve Russian nationals were charged Friday with hacking Democrats to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, prompting some top Democrats to urge President Donald Trump to cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
The indictment, which came from the Robert Mueller probe, says that the defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military.
The Justice Department accuses the officers of engaging “in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the names ‘DCLeaks’ and ‘Guccifer 2.0’ and through another entity.”
“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein in a statement. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”
To read the Justice Department press release click here.
