U.S. indicts Russian hackers who targeted Clinton

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments Friday of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton in 2016. The charges are part of the ongoing special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki.

Crass and negative emails among Clinton staffers were leaked to the media during the campaign and might have swayed public opinion against the candidate. The internet “allows foreign adversaries to attack Americans in new and unexpected ways. 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,” Rosenstein said Friday. Twenty other Russians and Americans have been indicted in the course of the investigation, but some of the charges, such as those against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, are incidental and do not have anything to do with attempted election interference.