As shorthand, the “Russia investigation” is used to describe the ongoing probes into collusion, interference, and sometimes both. Think what you want about alleged collusion between President Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, but the Kremlin’s election interference is very real, and not just a relic of 2016. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Friday indictment of 12 Russian military officials illustrates this further.
As the Washington Examiner’s Kelly Cohen reported, “Mueller’s indictment alleged that the 12 Russian officials ‘engaged in a sustained effort’ to break into computers owned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. … The defendants worked for two units of a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military, and started hacking into Clinton’s campaign emails in 2016.” According to evidence presented by the Justice Department, the accused Russians used spear-phishing and malware techniques to carry out their interference plot.
