- Investigations into Russian Interference « Indictments of 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses
Indictment [PDF]
U.S. Department of Justice
Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to the 2016 Election
“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack
America in new and
unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
“Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice
is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to
justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair
elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be
adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to
confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our
commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they
will not succeed.”
According to the allegations in the indictment, Viktor Borisovich
Netyksho, Boris Alekseyevich Antonov, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Ivan
Sergeyevich Yermakov, Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, Sergey
Aleksandrovich Morgachev, Nikolay Yuryevich Kozachek, Pavel
Vyacheslavovich Yershov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Aleksandr
Vladimirovich Osadchuk, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin, and Anatoliy
Sergeyevich Kovalev were officials in Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the
Russian government’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
In 2016, officials in Unit 26165 began spearphishing volunteers and
employees of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including
the campaign’s chairman. Through that process, officials in this unit
were able to steal the usernames and passwords for numerous individuals
and use those credentials to steal email content and hack into other
computers. They also were able to hack into the computer networks of
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) through these spearphishing
techniques to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor the computer
activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of files of
malicious computer code to steal passwords and maintain access to these
networks.
The officials in Unit 26165 coordinated with officials in Unit 74455 to
plan the release of the stolen documents for the purpose of interfering
with the 2016 presidential election. Defendants registered the domain
DCLeaks.com and later staged the release of thousands of stolen emails
and documents through that website. On the website, defendants claimed
to be “American hacktivists” and used Facebook accounts with fictitious
names and Twitter accounts to promote the website. After public
accusations that the Russian government was behind the hacking of DNC
and DCCC computers, defendants created the fictitious persona Guccifer
2.0. On the evening of June 15, 2016 between 4:19PM and 4:56PM,
defendants used their Moscow-based server to search for a series of
English words and phrases that later appeared in Guccifer 2.0’s first
blog post falsely claiming to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for
the hacks in the hopes of undermining the allegations of Russian
involvement.
Members of Unit 74455 also conspired to hack into the computers of
state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that
supplied software and other technology related to the administration of
elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.
To avoid detection, defendants used false identities while using a
network of computers located around the world, including the United
States, paid for with cryptocurrency through mining bitcoin and other
means intended to obscure the origin of the funds. This funding
structure supported their efforts to buy key accounts, servers, and
domains. For example, the same bitcoin mining operation that funded the
registration payment for DCLeaks.com also funded the servers and
domains used in the spearphishing campaign.
The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:
- Count One alleges a criminal conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States through cyber operations by the GRU that involved the staged release of stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 president election;
- Counts Two through Nine charge aggravated identity theft for using identification belonging to eight victims to further their computer fraud scheme;
- Count Ten alleges a conspiracy to launder money in which the defendants laundered the equivalent of more than $95,000 by transferring the money that they used to purchase servers and to fund other costs related to their hacking activities through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; and
- Count Eleven charges conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by attempting to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections.
There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a
knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were
communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no
allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote
count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.
Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty
in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that
is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,
to the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.
This case was investigated with the help of the FBI’s cyber teams in
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San Francisco and the National Security
Division. The Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. There will be
no comments from the Special Counsel at this time.
The White House
July 14, 2018
Democratic National Committee
July 14, 2018
DNC on Indictments Related to Russian Hack
DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment against Russian government officials responsible for cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political and election-related organizations during the 2016 U.S. elections:“The Russian government attacked our democracy in 2016 and the Democratic National Committee was a primary target of this attack. Those are the facts.
“Today’s indictment makes clear just how vast this operation was, adding details such as Russian intelligence officers' intrusion into the website of a state election board and theft of information related to approximately 500,000 voters.
"This is not a witch hunt and it is certainly not a joke, as Donald Trump has desperately and incorrectly argued in the past. It’s long past time for him and his allies in the Republican Party to stop ignoring this urgent threat to our national security.
“The American people deserve to know the truth and the Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. The Kremlin's efforts to disrupt our electoral process have grave implications for our democracy. Donald Trump and his Republican enablers’ efforts to discredit these established facts only embolden Putin's Russia and invite further attacks on our country.”
Republican National Committee
July 13, 2018
RNC Statement on DOJ Indictments Against Russian Nationals
“It’s clear that the Russians launched an attack on our electoral system with the goal of spreading distrust and undermining our democracy," said Chairwoman McDaniel. "Any breach of our political organizations – regardless of party – is an affront to all of us, and we should come together as Americans to prevent it from ever happening again."
"It also remains clear that there was no collusion by the Trump campaign and that the Russians were ultimately unsuccessful in altering the results of the election. The American people have watched the President’s political opponents desperately search for evidence of collusion for years now. While it’s important that we do all we can to safeguard our future elections, it’s long past time for investigations into non-existent collusion to end.”