SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Robert Mueller III has warned the White House that he is seeking to interview members of President Donald Trump's inner circle as part of the FBI's investigation into the administration and campaign's interactions with Russian operatives. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Mueller Charges 13 Russians With Interfering in the 2016 Presidential Election
"Yet another shoe has dropped with today's indictments of 13 Russian nationals, and any claims that the Russia investigation is a hoax are now clearly revealed as attempts to deflect from the story behind the curtain."
Feb 16, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday announced federal indictments (pdf) against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities--including a state-supported "troll farm"--for conspiring to interfere "with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."
"Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the 37-page indictment reads. "Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities."
The indictments are being characterized as one of the most significant moments of Mueller's Russia probe, which has thus far elicited charges against four Americans who played a role in President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.
The Russians named in Mueller's indictment stand accused of deploying a wide variety of tactics in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in President Donald Trump's favor, including attempting to suppress minority turnout and staging political rallies.
Highlighting Trump's repeated dismissals of the special counsel's investigation as entirely baseless, Public Citizen argued on Twitter that Friday's indictments show that efforts to discredit Mueller's probe as a "hoax" are "attempts to deflect from the story behind the curtain."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday announced federal indictments (pdf) against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities--including a state-supported "troll farm"--for conspiring to interfere "with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."
"Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the 37-page indictment reads. "Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities."
The indictments are being characterized as one of the most significant moments of Mueller's Russia probe, which has thus far elicited charges against four Americans who played a role in President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.
The Russians named in Mueller's indictment stand accused of deploying a wide variety of tactics in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in President Donald Trump's favor, including attempting to suppress minority turnout and staging political rallies.
Highlighting Trump's repeated dismissals of the special counsel's investigation as entirely baseless, Public Citizen argued on Twitter that Friday's indictments show that efforts to discredit Mueller's probe as a "hoax" are "attempts to deflect from the story behind the curtain."
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday announced federal indictments (pdf) against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities--including a state-supported "troll farm"--for conspiring to interfere "with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."
"Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the 37-page indictment reads. "Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities."
The indictments are being characterized as one of the most significant moments of Mueller's Russia probe, which has thus far elicited charges against four Americans who played a role in President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.
The Russians named in Mueller's indictment stand accused of deploying a wide variety of tactics in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in President Donald Trump's favor, including attempting to suppress minority turnout and staging political rallies.
Highlighting Trump's repeated dismissals of the special counsel's investigation as entirely baseless, Public Citizen argued on Twitter that Friday's indictments show that efforts to discredit Mueller's probe as a "hoax" are "attempts to deflect from the story behind the curtain."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.