At the core of the Russia investigation was always the 2016 hacking and publishing of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. In January 2017, US officials attributed the attack to Russia and said the operation was personally directed by President Vladimir Putin. It was left to Robert S. Mueller III to sort out the specifics and determine if any Americans shared blame.
A little more than a year into his investigation, Mueller made this much clear: he knew exactly who carried out the hack, and how they did it. In this twenty-nine-page indictment of a dozen officers of the Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, Mueller described in granular detail how the group hacked the emails, then laundered the stolen messages through fake online personas so they could be shared to influence voters.
Notably, Mueller did not include any Americans in the indictment, and he similarly spared the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks, which is identified in the document only as “Organization 1.”
Mueller did, however, describe an online conversation between the GRU, posing as a person called Guccifer 2.0, and a “person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.” Roger Stone has acknowledged that description refers to him.
Mueller also revealed a detail that—even if it was mere coincidence—seemed remarkable. On July 27, 2016, Trump gave a press conference declaring his hope that missing Hillary Clinton emails would be found and made public, saying, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the thirty thousand emails that are missing.” Russia seemed to spring into action. According to Mueller’s indictment, “on or about” that same day, those involved in the hacking tried “to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office.”
The indictment alleged, “At or around the same time they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign.”
The Russian officers named in the indictment have not responded to the allegations.