Crime

Add 12 Russians To The List Of 'Witches' Who Have Been Caught By Robert Mueller

Rod Rosenstein announces 12 fresh indictments of Russian operatives for hacking the DNC.

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(Isaac Brekken/Getty)

If the Russia probe is a “witch hunt,” then Robert Mueller is a goddamn Ghostbuster.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced 12 new indictments this afternoon, in connection with Russia’s attempts to hack into the DNC and help Donald Trump get elected. That brings the overall number to 32 people or entities indicted in connection with the Mueller investigation. From Talking Points Memo:

The 12 defendants named in the indictment are members of the Russian intel agency, the GRU, according to a Justice Department press release about the indictment.

The indictment includes 11 criminal counts and one forfeiture allegation. The criminal counts include conspiracy against the United states, identity theft and money laundering.

In addition to targeting the DNC, the Department of Justice alleges the Russian intelligence operatives also targeted: “state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.”

If you care about how Russians tried to influence our election, this indictment is sobering.

But, we know that the person in charge of protecting us from Russian influence, President Donald Trump, does not care about that. He only cares about how information affects him.

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On that scale, these indictments include no additional Americans, and Rosenstein was careful to say that it was the DOJ’s position that any American who communicated with these indicted Russians did so unwittingly. Nothing happened today that changes the central Trump narrative, that he was too stupid to know that a foreign power was helping him the White House.

But, there is the little matter of Trump directly asking Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails. And these indictments suggest that after Trump’s order/plea/joke, Russians did step up their efforts to hack or deliver what turned out to be John Podesta’s emails.

To me, the biggest issue here is that it’s more evidence that Russians didn’t just try to hack the national election, they were also working in state and local politics. Given that we are mere months away from a massively important state and local midterm election, you’d think people would be more concerned about protecting us from the continuing threat of Russian interference.

You know, unless those people expect to be helped by Russian interference.

Mueller Probe Brings Indictments Of Russians In Election Hacking Of Dems [Talking Points Memo]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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