Department of Justice indicts 12 Russian intelligence officers for Clinton email hacks

Just days before President Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Department of Justice has leveled new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers who allegedly hacked the Democratic National Committee and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The charges were released by Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who’s leading the investigation into Russian election tampering because of the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the investigation.

In January of last year, the intelligence community issued a joint statement affirming that Russia had indeed tampered with the U.S. presidential elections in 2016.

Now the investigation is beginning to release indictments. Three former campaign aides for the president’s campaign have already pleaded guilty, and the president himself is under investigation by Special Investigator Robert Mueller for potential obstruction of justice.

According to the indictment, the Russians used spearphishing attacks to gain access to the network of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Rosenstein also said that Russia’s military intelligence service was behind the leaks that distributed the information online under the aliases Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks.

Read the full indictment below.