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.
[READ HERE: Mueller’s indictment against 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016]
This comes as the Russian government seems set on continuing its interference campaign as midterm election season plays out in the U.S.
Just this week, Department of Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs told the House Homeland Security Committee that this year’s midterms “remain a potential target for Russian actors.”
Though Krebs noted “the intelligence community has yet to see any evidence of a robust campaign aimed at tampering with our election infrastructure along the lines of 2016 or of influencing the makeup of the House or Senate races,” he also stated, “The intelligence community, however, continues to see Russia using social media false flag personas, sympathetic spokesman, and other means to influence or inflame positions on opposite ends of controversial issues.”
In February, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said, “There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 US midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations.”
As the collusion investigation drags on, and public support for the probe wanes, Mueller’s indictment reminds us that his efforts aren’t a total “witch hunt,” and that interference remains a real threat. This is key context for Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin on Monday. (To be clear, there’s no evidence at all suggesting Russian interference in 2016 altered any vote counts.) Asked this week, Trump said “of course” he would broach interference with Putin when they sit down. “All I can do is say, ‘Did you?’ And, ‘Don’t do it again.’ But he may deny it,” the president noted.
Along with “Don’t do it again,” Trump should probably add, “Stop doing it now.”
