Special Counsel Robert Mueller
A grand jury indictment released Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller accuses 13 Russian nationals and three companies of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment says the nationals, posing as Americans, contacted members of the Trump campaign.
But authorities said there was no allegation any American was a knowing participant.
Nor is there any allegation the scheme affected the election.
A Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency sought to wage “information warfare” against the United States beginning in 2014, the indictment charges, and by early to mid-2016 the Russian nationals were “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”
The indictment cites American laws regulating the activities of foreigners to prevent “improper foreign influences on U.S. elections and on the U.S. political system.”
The laws include bans on foreign nationals making “certain expenditures or financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing
