US indicts Russian intel officers ahead of Trump-Putin summit

WASHINGTON: Twelve Russian intelligence officers have been charged with hacking Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party in a stunning indictment just days before President Donald Trump meets with Vladimir Putin.

The charges were drawn up by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is looking into Russian interference in the November 2016 vote and whether any members of Trump’s campaign team colluded with Moscow.

Democratic leaders immediately called for Trump to cancel Monday’s scheduled meeting with the Russian president in Helsinki, but the White House said the summit would go ahead.

The 29-page indictment issued Friday accuses members of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU of carrying out "large-scale cyber operations" to steal Clinton campaign and Democratic Party documents and emails.

"There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in announcing the charges at a press conference in Washington.

He added that although "conspirators corresponded with several Americans during the course of the conspiracy through the internet," the indictment did not allege that Americans knew they were in contact with Russian intelligence officers.

Rosenstein said he briefed Trump about the indictment before Friday’s announcement and that the timing was determined by "the facts, the evidence, and the law."

Trump on Saturday responded by blaming the administration of former president Barack Obama for failing to act.

"Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?" he tweeted.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, urged Trump to cancel the Putin talks. "President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections," Schumer said in a statement. Republican Senator John McCain said the summit should be called off if Trump is not ready to warn Putin there is a "serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the US and democracies around the world."