- A candidate for Congress asked Russian hackers to provide documents on their campaign’s opponent before the 2016 US election, a charging document says.
- The allegation is in an indictment against 12 Russian operatives announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday.
WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced on Friday the indictment of 12 Russian government operatives, and the charging document says a candidate for US Congress requested information and documents on their campaign’s opponent before the 2016 election.
The indictment, part of the Russia investigation headed by the special counsel Robert Mueller, describes the details of the transaction.
“Between in or around June 2016 and October 2016, the Conspirators used Guccifer 2.0 to release documents through WordPress that they had stolen from” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee, the indictment says. “The Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, also shared stolen documents with certain individuals.”
The document continues: “On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for the US Congress. The Conspirators responded using the Guccifer 2.0 persona and sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.”
The indictment does not name the candidate or allude to whether they won their election. The party primaries would have been wrapped by August 2016, strongly suggesting that the person who requested hacked documents from the Russian operatives was a Republican.
The indictment of the 12 Russian operatives is the latest development in the ongoing Russia investigation. So far, two dozen Russians have been indicted, while several other people have faced charges, including Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, and Michael Flynn, the Trump administration's former national security adviser.
