Russian interference in the US election campaign: indictment at a delicate moment

In a few days, Trump and Putin meet – which makes it all the more inconvenient for the US president to press charges against 12 Russians for interference in the US election campaign.

By Martin Ganslmeier, ARD Studio Washington

Until now, it has been evidence of American intelligence. Now, the US judicial system has the findings of the Special Investigator Robert Mueller: There is no doubt that it is the Russian military intelligence employees who hacked Hillary Clinton's computers and 300 of his employees during the campaign presidential election, said Rod Rosenstein. Deputy Attorney General of the United States: "The charges target twelve Russian military officers and, with their conspiracy, have tried to influence the 2016 presidential election."

Since March 2016, Russian intelligence entered John's computer. Podesta and got 50,000 mails. On July 27, 2016, Russian hackers accessed for the first time the computers of Hillary Clinton and her closest badociates.

"I hope you can find the mails"

Presidential candidate Donald Trump makes a controversial call to Russia at a campaign event: "Russia, if you listen: I hope you can find the 30 000 mails that have disappeared. "

The private computer was destroyed by Hillary Clinton. Obviously, Russian hackers have heard Trump's call. According to the findings of the special investigator Mueller they created two fake identities, on which they published the Clinton team 's hacked mails: on the one hand the platform "DCLeaks", d & # 39; the other hand the anonymous person "Guccifer 2.0"

"Guccifer 2.0" added to release material against Clinton. In the indictment of US justice, the organization is not named. Experts suggest that they are WikiLeaks.

Trump was still answering new charges in London. The actions of his own Department of Justice and Special Investigator Trump called a "witch hunt, a witch hunt manipulated."

White House: Mueller quits the job

Since the indictment is directed against only twelve Russians, A member of the Trump campaign team, the White House s 39; is felt confirmed. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, said it was time to end the work of Special Investigator Mueller

. The Democrats, for their part, demanded that Trump immediately cancel his summit meeting with Putin. Democrat Senator Mark Warner said: "The president and his team do not want to make the facts of this case a top priority in Helsinki, so the summit should be canceled."

Trump promised to respond to Putin's Russian interference. In recent months, Trump has mostly referred to Putin's badurances that it had nothing to do with interference with the US elections. Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein on CNN said: "It was a military action on the part of the Russians, it was a cyber-war to undermine the most important process of our democracy."

However, the indictment does not clearly state whether hacker attacks by Russian intelligence officers have distorted or manipulated the results of the US presidential election.