Russian intelligence officers indicted for hacking in 2016

FAN Editor

Last Updated Jul 13, 2018 12:44 PM EDT

A grand jury in the special counsel probe has returned the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking during the 2016 election — including hacking emails of the Democratic National Committee, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Friday. 

The Justice Department says the 12 defendants are all members of the Russian intelligence arm GRU, and attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. They allegedly did this, Rosenstein said, by spearphishing volunteers and employees of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and were able to steal usernames and passwords, eventually hacking into the networks of the Democratic National Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee. The GRU, Rosenstein said, created and controlled the groups D.C. Leaks and Guccifer 2.0.

In another related allegation, the indictment claims Russian officers hacked a state election board’s website and stole the information of roughly 500,000 voters. The indictment also alleges the GRU officers hacked into computers belonging to a company that supplies software used to verify voter information, and targeted local and state election offices. 

“There is no allegation in this indictment that Americans knew they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers,” said Rosenstein, who also noted there is no evidence the alleged hacking had any impact on the election results. 

In 2016, thousands of emails from Democratic party officials were leaked and posted by WikiLeaks. The FBI confirmed in July of that year that it was investigating the leaks. 

The charges come just days before President Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Rosenstein said he briefed Mr. Trump on the indictment earlier this week. 

Asked whether he will bring up election meddling when he meets with Putin, Mr. Trump on Friday said he would. 

The charges come after Mueller’s investigation has already led to the indictment of 13 Russian nationals earlier this year.

In the face of alleged foreign interference, Rosenstein urged unity and patriotism against foreign interference. 

“The partisan warfare fueled by modern technology does not fairly reflect the grace, dignity and unity of the American people,” Rosenstein said. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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