Indictment Shows Russian Communication with Trump Campaign

News  |  Jul 14, 2018

AP:

Here’s a look at what’s in the indictment:

THE HACKING WAS CONNECTED TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

The indictment said Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff — known as GRU — had multiple units that “conducted large scale cyber operations” to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently asserted that Russia was not involved in the hacking or any attempt to interfere with U.S. elections. But GRU is part of the state machine, and their participation would indicate that Putin was closely involved in the effort.

THE HACKING WAS A SOPHISTICATED OPERATION

According to the indictment, the Russian hacking operation was so precise that they were able to pinpoint specific computers within the House Democratic campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic National Committee that stored information related to the election. They were able to search the computers for certain terms, like “Hillary,” ″Cruz,” and “Trump.” They also copied folders, including opposition research and field operation plans.

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TRUMP ASKED THE RUSSIANS TO HACK CLINTON — AND THEY DID

The indictment says the Russians used “spearphishing” — a technique used to steal passwords or otherwise gain access to computers — throughout the summer of 2016 to hack individuals associated with the Clinton campaign.

One attempt noted in the indictment appeared to come hours after Donald Trump suggested Russians look for Clinton’s emails. On the morning of July 27, 2016, Trump gave a speech in which he said “Russia, if you’re listening,” he’d love to get a look at the thousands of emails Clinton had said she deleted from her tenure as secretary of state.

The indictment points to a hacking attempt that same day, saying that “after hours” the Russians attempted to “spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office.” Around the same time, the indictment says, they targeted 76 email addresses at the Clinton campaign’s domain.

In all, the indictment says the Russians targeted over 300 individuals associated with the Clinton campaign, the DCCC and the DNC.

THE RUSSIANS COMMUNICATED WITH A TRUMP-AFFILIATED PERSON

The indictment does not allege that that any Americans, including Trump campaign officials, were knowingly in contact with Russian intelligence officers. But it does say that Russians wrote to an unnamed person “who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.”

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In September, the Russians wrote the person again and referred to a stolen DCCC document posted online. “What do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.”

The person responded, “(p)retty standard,” according to the indictment.

THE RUSSIANS STOLE VOTER INFORMATION

The indictment says the Russians hacked the website of a state board of elections and stole the information of roughly 500,000 voters, including names, addresses, partial Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers. They also hacked into a national election vendor that supplied software used to verify voter registration information.

Federal officials have said state election sites in at least 18 states were probed by the Russians. The indictment adds county offices — specifically in Georgia, Florida and Iowa — to the list of election administration sites they allegedly visited “to identify vulnerabilities.”

Department of Homeland Security officials have said there is no evidence of any election results being tampered with during the 2016 intrusions.

Read More: 5 takeaways from the Russian election hacking indictment (AP)