In an unusual response to the Russian indictments Friday, the White House issued a statement full of bullet points emphasizing that no Americans were charged. The statement conspicuously lacked any condemnation of Russia’s election meddling or a pledge to step up election protections.
The statement reads:
“As Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said today:
o “There is no allegation in this indictment that Americans knew that they were corresponding with Russians.
o There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime.
o There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.”Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result. This is consistent with what we have been saying all along.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Friday that 12 Russians have been indicted for hacking into the computers of those involved with the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC, among others, to steal and disseminate damaging information during the campaign.
President Donald Trump, who has known about the pending indictments all week, has made no move to cancel his upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in light of the charges.
