Justice Department indicts 12 Russian cyberspies suspected in DNC hacking

[BLANK_AUDIO] Good afternoon. Today a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel's Office. The indictment charges 12 Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. 11 of the defendants are charged with conspiring to hack into computers, steal documents, and release those documents with the intent to interfere in the election. One of those defendants, and a 12th Russian military officer, are charged with conspiring to infiltrate computers Of organizations in administering the elections, including state boards of election, secretaries of state, and companies that supply software used to administer elections. According to the allegations in the indictment, the defendants worked for two units of the main intelligence directorate Of the Russian General Staff, known as the GRU. The units engaged in active cyber operations to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and the criminal activity. There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There's no allegation that the conspiracy changed vote count or affected any election result. The indictment was returned today because prosecutors determined that the evidence was sufficient to present these allegations to a federal grand jury. Our analysis Is based solely on the facts, the law and Department of Justice policies. I briefed President Trump about these allegations earlier this week. The president is fully aware of the departments actions today.