Things to Notice About the Indictment of 13 Russians and 3 Russian Companies

​Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Friday released an indictment alleging that 13 Russians and three Russian organizations participated in a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

This list contains a combination of points from articles in The Hill and BBC. Links to the articles can be found below.

1. This was a broad, well-organized effort.

Beginning as early as 2014, the defendants began to track and study U.S. social media sites related to politics and social issues. They used false personas to contact U.S. persons, and to pay them using accounts created through identity theft to conceal the origin of the payments. They controlled hundreds of social media accounts created under false pretenses. (One account impersonated the Tennessee GOP on Twitter.)

2. Defendants allegedly communicated with Trump campaign members.

The indictment states that these campaign members were unwitting participants in the conspiracy.

3. Suppressing votes for Clinton was an important part of the operation.

The indictment asserts that the aim of the conspiracy was to promote presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and to disparage Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.

4. Defendants took steps to cover their tracks.

Multiple false personas, fake accounts, and shell companies were created to conceal the origin of money and information. The creation of these accounts involved identity theft, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

5. The indictment describes serious crimes - visa fraud, identity theft, wire fraud, bank fraud.

In addition to Friday’s indictment, an indictment against an American citizen, Richard Pinedo, was unsealed Friday. Pinedo has pleaded guilty to selling personal information stolen from U.S. persons to the defendants.

6. There were real people paid by the defendants to organize rallies, build props, and wear costumes at multiple events in multiple states.

At least one person was paid to build a cage for use at a rally, and another was paid to dress up as Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform and stand in the cage.

7. This operation did not end on election day.

After the election, persona accounts continued on social media to sow discord among U.S. persons regarding the election and presidency of Donald Trump.

There is credible evidence that Russia-controlled personas were involved, this past weekend, in promoting discord among Americans regarding gun violence, in the wake of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Rod Rosenstein, deputy director of the FBI, presented the indictment in a press conference Friday. The press conference can be seen here.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?441317-1/deputy-attorney-general-rod-rosenstein-announces-indictment-russian-nationals

The Hill article can be found here.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/374305-five-things-to-know-about-the-russian-indictments

MSNBC contributor Matt Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman, told Mike Allen of Axios: "Friday’s indictment established the legal architecture for possible future charges. Once you’ve established there was a conspiracy, you can charge anyone who was aware of the conspiracy and took an overt action to further it."

The Axios article can be found here.
https://www.axios.com/mueller-investigation-russia-facebook-future-7ab6695e-0012-4af5-99a3-d55c665b7796.html

The BBC article can be found here.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43093260

The indictment can be found here.
https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download