Justice Dept. Indicts 12 Russian Military Intelligence Officers for Election Interference
*By Alisha Haridasani*
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on Friday indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
The defendants “used a variety of means to hack the email accounts of volunteers and employees of the U.S. presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including the email account of the Clinton campaign manager” with the intent to “stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere” with the election, the [indictment](https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download) stated.
All 12 defendants were identified as officers of GRU, an intelligence agency that functions within the Russian military, making this the first time Mueller’s probe has gone after the Kremlin. Previous indictments have been directed at Russian nationals and companies, as well as several former Trump campaign aides, including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.
The Russian-orchestrated plan disclosed Friday stopped short of altering the vote count, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a news conference, reiterating a point that has been repeated by the agency and other intelligence committees multiple times during the drawn-out investigation.
"But what this gets to is that this was a misinformation campaign," said Louis Nelson, breaking news reporter at Politico. "Whether minds were changed, whether they were able to sway public opinion, that's the thing that's hard ー maybe impossible ー to quantify."
The news dropped just days ahead of Trump’s controversial one-on-one with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Finland, timing that's unusual for the typically nonpartisan agency.
"The Justice Department generally, typically, tries very hard to avoid even the appearance of doing anything that might be seen as politically motivated," said Nelson.
Mueller's "by-the-book" reputation also adds to the intrigue around the timing of the announcement.
"Frankly, it was a bit unexpected for him to have come out today with indictments today against Russian military officials," said Nelson. "Certainly, it changes the context of that meeting in Helsinki."
The indictments have prompted some Democrats to call for Trump to cancel the meeting.
"There should be no one-on-one meeting between this president and Mr. Putin. There needs to be other Americans in the room," said [Sen. Mark Warner,](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/mueller-rosenstein-russia-indictments/h_4f0157a3b47ba1bed6b19ce61e38869a) a Democrat from Virginia who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Hours before Rosenstein’s announcement, the president was asked whether he would press Putin about the election meddling.
“I will absolutely bring that up,” said Trump, during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May in the UK. “I don’t think you’ll have any, ‘Gee I did it, I did it, you got me.’ There won’t be a Perry Mason here.”
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/mueller-indicts-12-russian-military-officials-and-what-it-means-for-the-trump-putin-summit)
Face to face for just over two hours, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin squared off in a secure video call Tuesday as the U.S. president put Moscow on notice that an invasion of Ukraine would bring enormous harm to the Russian economy.
Ahead of Instagram head Adam Mosseri's congressional hearing on the mental impact of the social platform on teens, the company announced a number of updates aimed at teen safety.
Troubled Chinese real estate giant Evergrande is once again nearing the brink of collapse. Shares of Evergrande sunk to a new record low on Monday, closing down 20 percent, as debt default fears resurfaced. Drew Bernstein, co-chairman at consultancy MarcumBP, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. He said U.S. investors have to understand that "there is no company in China that's too big to fail, that's for sure," and that the Chinese government will be prioritizing the social welfare of the populace. Bernstein did note that it would be a managed collapse in some form.
Joan Greve, a politics reporter at The Guardian US, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the implications of the Biden administration announcing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing games in response to allegations of human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims. She noted the significance of the move, assessing the already frayed relationship between the U.S. and China. "The Chinese have said that a boycott would be politically manipulative, and now they are actually threatening countermeasures," she said. "And that will certainly have an impact on the spirit of the games at the very least."
The Biden administration has reached an agreement with the Mexican government to resume the "Remain-in-Mexico" policy under court order. By reinstating a Trump-era border policy, asylum-seekers will be forced to stay in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date. The program is set to resume on Monday. Ryan Devereaux, a reporter for The Intercept, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
The U.S. announced it will not send any official representation to the upcoming Beijing winter Olympics. Cheddar's Hena Doba speaks with East Asia expert Michael Swaine about the reasons behind the diplomatic move.
COVID-19 is still battering the nation's criminal justice system, causing a massive backlog in cases and delaying verdicts for months on end. This, combined with the fear of crowded prisons during a pandemic, has prompted many defendants to plead guilty in exchange for time served or probation. Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Defense Practice, joined Cheddar to discuss the court backlog, the rise in plea bargains, and why this was an issue long before the pandemic.
With so many high-profile court cases taking over the media, from the trial over the murder of Ahmaud Arbery to the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse to the ongoing Elizabeth Holmes trial, Cheddar took a look at these cases and why there is such a big interest in them. Rachel Fiset, a white collar criminal defense lawyer and partner with Zeiback, Fiset, and Coleman, and Bryan Hance, attorney-at-law, professor, and academic program director of the pre-law and paralegal studies program at National University, joined Cheddar for a roundtable discussion on why there is so much public interest in so-called courtroom drama.
Carlo and Baker discuss the sweeping new vaccine mandate in NYC that will target all private businesses. Plus, Trump's media venture gets its CEO and more.
