Twelve Russian military intelligence officers hacked into the Clinton presidential campaign and Democratic Party, releasing tens of thousands of stolen and politically damaging communications, in a sweeping conspiracy by the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election, according to a grand jury indictment announced days before President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here is what we learned in this indictment.
1. On July 27, 2016, Trump made his public request to hack Hillary Clinton’s email accounts. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” The indictment says that Russian officials that same evening tried for the first time to hack Clinton’s emails.
2. WikiLeaks was coordinating the release of the DNC emails with the Russian government.
3. Guccifer 2.0 is a Russian intelligence officer working for the Russian government, and he was regularly communicating with an American that was in regular communication with members of the Trump campaign.
4. A major party candidate for a congressional seat contacted the Russian hackers and requested they hack his congressional opponent. The hackers hacked his appointment and released the documents they obtained.