THE US government has charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies over a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar operation designed to sway the 2016 US election in Donald Trump’s favour. According to a 37-page indictment lodged overnight, the 13 Russian nationals were members of St Petersburg-based company Internet Research Agency LLC, which was engaged in a campaign of “information warfare” to help Mr Trump win the presidency and to disparage his rival, Hillary Clinton.
There is no suggestion in the indictment, however, that anyone in the Trump campaign knowingly took part in the Russian conspiracy or that it actually affected the election’s outcome.
“From in or around 2014 to the present, [the] defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other … to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the US political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016,” the indictment reads.
According to a 37-page indictment lodged overnight, the 13 Russian nationals were members of St Petersburg-based company Internet Research Agency LLC, which was engaged in a campaign of “information warfare” to help Mr Trump win the presidency and to disparage his rival, Hillary Clinton.
