After the 2016 US presidential election, there were indications of Russian influence in Donald Trump’s emergence as president. The Justice Department launched an investigation to ascertain whether or not the elections suffered influence of external state actors. Well, it appears some progress is leading to interesting results.
Actual Transaction
The Justice Department alleges that a team of 12 Russian military intelligence officers interfered in the election. The dozen allegedly hacked email accounts and computer networks of Democrats, including Hilary Clinton, using malicious software and also phishing emails. The hackers also maintain a record of over 500,000 US voters the statement says.
The statement, released by the US Deputy Attorney General Office, reveals that some $95,000 worth of webs transactions involving bitcoins footed the bills of the activities. According to Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy US Attorney General, cryptocurrency payments purchased services provided by the defendants.
Sources Of Bitcoin
Explaining further, the press release purported that they were acquiring bitcoins for the transactions through exchanges. It continued: Bitcoin was used in the transactions for ease of transfer, and they engaged a crypto-programmer to ensure that the transactions remained anonymous.
Email Accounts Used
In a bid to ensure that the transactions would remain nameless, conspirators used anonymous email accounts to perfect the transactions. The findings also revealed that the officials used the same computers that they used to hack into the email accounts. Additionally, this info forged the connection between the two transactions.
Indictment
An eleven-count indictment was slammed on the Russians defendants for cyber attacks on a number of US email accounts, including those of Hilary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta. The press release opined ties to US citizens, though there was no evidence that a US citizen committed a crime.
History
This is the first indictment on Russian officials by US authorities nearly two years after the US presidential election. Although the US president has refuted claims of him engaging Russian spies to influence the elections, Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, was, however, appointed by the Justice Department to investigate the possibility the Russians meddling in the elections. President Trump also maintains his position on the matter, insisting that he didn’t hire Russians to influence the election in his favor. We will continue to report the drama as it plays out.
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