2LT International News

WASHINGTON, U.S. – A day after the U.S. Department of Justice charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 Presidential election, the U.S. President Donald Trump revealed his strategy for dealing with the Russian meddling – by blaming his predecessor.

Trump’s response to the indictment announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday came as his first personal response to a controversy that has gripped his administration and time in power ever since the start.

The controversy regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election – which is seen to have helped swing the election in his favor – has dogged his administration even before his inauguration. 

On Friday, Rosenstein announced the indictment, which names 12 Russian intelligence officers and accuses them of engaging in a “sustained effort” to hack Democrats’ emails and computer networks. 

The 29-page indictment, which was announced at almost exactly the moment that Trump met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in the U.K., as part of his working visit to the country – also comes just days ahead of the U.S. President’s highly debated meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

On Saturday morning, Trump responded to the indictment by blaming the Obama administration for not responding aggressively enough to Russian hacking of Democratic targets in the 2016 U.S. election.

Trump’s response also came as his first personal response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s initial charges against Russian government officials for interfering in American politics.

Tweeting from his golf resort in Scotland, two days before his high-stakes summit with Putin in Finland, Trump said that he will bring up election meddling with the foreign president. 

The President also referred to the detailed indictment of Russian intelligence officials from his own government as “stories.”

He tweeted, “The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration. Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”

Trump’s tweet came after the White House released a prepared statement on Friday, in which spokeswoman said, “Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result. This is consistent with what we have been saying all along.”

Further, Deputy White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement, “As Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said today: ‘There is no allegation in this indictment that Americans knew that they were corresponding with Russians. There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.’”

Backing up the White House statement, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani tweeted late on Friday that the indictments are “good news for all Americans.”

He wrote, “The Russians are nailed. No Americans are involved. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent.”

Previously, the U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Russia was aiming to help the Trump campaign and harm Clinton’s bid.

The indictment unveiled on Friday claims that the 12 Russians accused began their cyber-attacks in March 2016 to hack the email accounts of volunteers and employees of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Rosenstein said that they used spear phishing emails and malicious software and that the hackers also stole data on half a million voters from a state election board website.

The charge sheet states the conspirators searched a campaign committee computer specifically for terms including “Hillary” and “Trump.”

Rosenstein said that the defendants corresponded with several Americans during the alleged conspiracy – but categorically pointed out that there is no allegation that any U.S. citizen committed a crime.

Rosenstein noted that two of the defendants are also “charged with conspiring to infiltrate computers of organizations responsible for administering elections, including state boards of election, secretaries of state, and companies that supply software and other technology used to administer elections.”

He said that it was the hacking of a state election board that led to the theft of information about the 500,000 voters.

According to Rosenstein, the conspirators used fictitious online personas, including “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0”, to release thousands of stolen emails from June 2016.

The indictment also states that they also conspired to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and voter software.

Rosenstein noted, “We know that the goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election.”

He added that all 12 of the defendants were military officers acting in “their official capacities” in the GRU – which is the Russian federation intelligence agency within the main intelligence directorate of the Russian military.

However, Trump, who has repeatedly expressed skepticism about Russian involvement in the hacking, calling Mueller’s probe into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russians as the ‘greatest witch hunt in American history’, has been accused by Democrats of cozying up to Putin. 

Commenting on the Russia collusion allegations dogging his presidency during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, Trump said the allegations were “pure stupidity.”

His statement came hours before Rosenstein unveiled the indictment.

Rosenstein also clarified in his press conference that “the president is fully aware of today’s actions by the department.”

Commenting on the indictment, the Russian Foreign Ministry said there was no evidence the 12 were linked to military intelligence or hacking.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov said in a statement, “The Russian state has never interfered and has no intention of interfering in the U.S. elections.”

Now, some Democrats are calling on Trump to cancel his planned summit with Putin and hold the Russian President accountable for the elaborate hacking.

However, the White House has said in a statement on Saturday that despite tension over Moscow’s alleged election meddling, the summit will go ahead as planned.