Russians Indicted for Online Election Trolling
Legal Sidebari
Russians Indicted for Online Election Trolling
Updated February 21, 2018
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the grand jury indictment of three Russian companies and
thirteen Russian nationals on February 16, 2018. The indictment alleges that the defendants took part in a
multi-layered, multi-million dollar scheme to surreptitiously participate in the most recent presidential
election. The defendants are charged with aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit mail and bank
fraud and with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. The indictment asserts that the purpose of the
enterprise was to obstruct “the lawful governmental functions of the United States by dishonest means in
order to enable the Defendants to interfere with U.S. political and electoral processes, including the 2016
U.S. presidential election.”
One of the companies and four of the individual defendants are charged specifically with six counts of
aggravated identity theft. The crime involves unlawfully possessing, using, or transferring the identity of
someone else in connection with the commission of one of a series of other offenses, such as wire or bank
fraud. The offense is punishable by imprisonment for a mandatory two years (five years if the predicate
offense is a federal crime of terrorism). The indictment lists six instances in which a victim’s social
security number and/or date of birth were used in conjunction with acts of wire and bank fraud to open
bank accounts or secure credit cards.
One of the companies and two of the Russian nationals are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud
and bank fraud. Wire fraud is a scheme to defraud another of property using some form of interstate or
foreign wire communications such as the Internet. Bank fraud is a scheme to defraud a bank. Conspiracy
to commit wire or bank fraud is the agreement of two or more persons to commit the offenses. When a
bank is victimized, wire fraud, bank fraud, or conspiracy to commit either offense is punishable by
imprisonment for not more than 30 years and a fine of not more than $1 million. The defendants charged
under this count are alleged to have used stolen identities to establish accounts and secure credit cards in
order to fund participation in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
The indictment also charges each of the three companies and each of the thirteen individual defendants
with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. The crime consists of an agreement to impair, obstruct,
or defeat the lawful functions of any department of the government provided that one of the conspirators
commits some overt act in furtherance of the scheme. Conviction carries with it a term of imprisonment
of not more than five years and a fine of not more than $250,000 (not more than $500,000 for a
company). As part of the plot, three of the Russian nationals stand accused of planning and equipping an
intelligence gathering trip to the United States. They allegedly submitted visa applications replete with
false statements relating to the purpose of the trip. Two of the defendants purportedly traveled to the U.S.
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and engaged in political and social activities, posing as Americans. In addition, the indictment accuses
each of the defendants with playing a role in the conspiracy that allegedly involved, among other things:
Creating hundreds of camouflaged social media accounts to voice and solicit views on
social, economic, and political issues associated with the campaign;
Purchasing advertising on online social media sites to advocate for the election or defeat
of various candidates;
Purchasing space on computer servers within the United States in order to set up virtual
private networks (VPNs) to facilitate the conspirators’ activities within the United States;
Registering hundreds of email accounts with U.S. providers using false names; some
accounts employed URLs suggesting affiliation with a U.S. political party;
Masquerading online as Americans to proselytize on various election issues among
targeted segments of the U.S. electorate;
Failing to report their campaign activities to the Federal Election Commission (FEC); and
Failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
In doing so, the indictment charges that the defendants conspired to impair, obstruct, or defeat the FEC,
DOJ and the State Department in the performance of their regulatory and enforcement responsibilities.
The return and announcement of the indictment were presumably for purposes other than the trial of the
accused. None of the defendants is currently in the United States. The United States also has no
extradition treaty with Russia, and some observers believe there is little chance that Russia would hand
over the defendants for prosecution in the United States, with or without an extradition treaty.
The DOJ press release notes that “[t]here is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a
knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity.” It ends with the observation that the Special
Counsel’s Office, which drafted the indictment returned by the grand jury, is continuing the investigation.
Author Information
Charles Doyle
Senior Specialist in American Public Law
Congressional Research Service
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