Vox Sentences: Robert Mueller and the 12 Russian trolls

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A grand jury has indicted 12 Russian nationals for interfering in the 2016 presidential election; violence in Pakistan soars leading up to the country’s general election.

12 Russian intel officers indicted in US election meddling scandal

Win McNamee/Getty Images

• The Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury indicted 12 Russian nationals accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. The indictments are a part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. [CNN / Katelyn Polantz and Stephen Collinson]
• The indictments include charges of conspiracy, money laundering and attempting to hack into government agencies and election boards. [NYT / Mark Mazzetti and Katie Benner]
• The 12 nationals, thought to be led by Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, are members of GRU, a Russian intelligence agency. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
• The hack and leak in question took place days before Americans went to the polls to vote in the 2016 election. The Russians’ work is thought to have helped Donald Trump and hindered Hillary Clinton. [AP / Eric Tucker]
• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein emphasized that there are no allegations against American citizens involved in these indictments. [CBS / Kathryn Watson]
• Rudy Giuliani and the Trump team is lauding the announcement as a good place to end Mueller’s investigation. [NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]
• The announcement comes just days before Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to meet at a summit in Helsinki. It’s unclear how the indictments will affect diplomatic relations between the US and Russia. But essentially, the timing couldn’t be more awkward. [Washington Post / Amber Phillips]
• The findings of this investigation prove that the timing of the DNC leak was all a part of a master plan. [Vox / Ella Nilsen]
• Crimes with real consequences were committed, and Trump has done what he can to shelter those who committed them. [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]
• Russia’s election meddling can sometimes seem simple, as though the Russians just hacked Democrats and then WikiLeaks posted the emails. It’s a bit more complicated and insidious than that. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

ISIS targets political rallies in Pakistan

• At least 128 people are dead and 150 are injured following explosions at two separate political rallies in Pakistan. ISIS took credit for the attack. [Al Arabiya]
• The bombing in the Mastung region was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since 2014 and the third political attack this week. [Reuters / Gul Yousafzai]
• Pakistani officials fear that more violence is to come with tensions over a general election taking place later in the month. [Al Jazeera / Asad Hashim]
• The attack was fairly “unexpected.” The Pakistani army claims that militants, who threatened secular political parties like the ones attacked today, have been cleared from the western portion of the country on the Afghan border. [BBC]
• Provincial assembly candidate Nawab Siraj Raisani was among those killed in Mastung. [Geo News]

Miscellaneous

• Another store has dropped Ivanka Trump’s brand from its registry. That poor Ivanka — she has it rough. [Racked / Rebecca Jennings]
• In a case of peak millennial humor, a video of a lemon rolling down a hill for a quarter of a mile has gone viral. [Twitter / Mike Sakasegawa]
• After facing immense backlash from actors and fans alike, Scarlett Johansson will no longer take the role of a trans man in the upcoming film Rub & Tug. [Vulture / Jordan Crucchiola]
• Chinese police have busted a World Cup gambling ring with $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies. [The Verge / Shoshana Wodinsky]

Verbatim

“People often ask me what Ben would do today. I think he would say: ‘Get the story. Get it first, but get it right.’ He’d be encouraged by how many good examples of that are being published every day. And he would keep pushing for more.” [Sally Quinn on what her husband, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, would think of today’s political landscape / Politico]

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