“U.S. stocks erased earlier gains on Friday after news broke that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals in and three Russian entities for allegedly interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Fred Imbert reports for CNBC. “The Dow Jones industrial average traded just below breakeven rising as much as 232 points. The S&P 500 also fell below the flatline, after advancing as much as 0.9 percent. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2 percent.”
“The major indexes still remained on track to post strong weekly gains. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up more than 4 percent for the week,” Imbert reports. “Stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday after choppy trading. The Dow finished 306 points higher, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained more than 1 percent. They have also rebounded sharply from the correction levels seen last week. On Feb. 8, the major averages closed 10 percent below all-time highs set last month.”
Read more in the full article here.
“The indictment says that a Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency sought to wage ‘information warfare’ against the United States by using fictitious American personas and social media platforms and other Internet-based media,” Mike Calia and Dan Mangan report for CNBC. “While that effort was launched in 2014, by early to mid-2016, the defendants were ‘supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton,’ the indictment charges.”
“Under U.S law, foreign nationals generally are barred from federal election efforts,” Calia and Mangan report. “‘By in or around May 2014, the organization’s strategy included interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with the stated goal of ‘spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” the indictment said.”
“Three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud,” Calia and Mangan report. “Five defendants are charged with aggravated identity theft.”
Read more, including the full indictment, here.
“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Friday the indictment of Russian nationals and entities accused of breaking U.S. laws to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. The defendants conducted information warfare against the U.S., Rosenstein announced Friday. Twelve of the individual defendants worked at various times for Internet Research Agency, based in St. Petersburg, he added,” CBS News reports. “They set up a ‘virtual private network’ in the U.S. – making it appear that the social media accounts they were using were controlled by people in the U.S., Rosenstein said.”
“There’s no allegation that any American was knowingly involved in the conspiracy, Rosenstein said. Nor was there an allegation that the efforts of the defendants affected the outcome of the election,” CBS News reports. “The indictment, he told reporters, is a reminder that ‘people are not always who they appear to be.’ He said the defendants wanted to undermine confidence in our democracy.”
“Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed President Trump on the indictments Friday, CBS News’ Major Garrett reports, according to two sources familiar with the talks. They told him that that the indictments did not allege cooperation or collusion with Trump campaign,” CBS News reports. “In addition to disparaging Clinton, they denigrated other candidates, “such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio,” and they supported Bernie Sanders and then Donald Trump… After the election of Donald Trump, the defendants allegedly planned rallies in support of President Trump. They also planned rallies against Trump titled, ‘Trump is NOT my President.'”
Read more in the full article here.
“Some of the defendants communicated with ‘unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities,'” NBC News reports. “‘There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity,’ Rosenstein said, adding there ‘there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.'”
“The indictment, brought by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on Friday, charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft,” NBC News reports. “Rosenstein said his team has not had communication with Russia about the indictments and would go through normal channels for the extradition of those indicted. However, the U.S. government has no extradition treaty with Russia. In the past, Russia has not cooperated with these requests.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The stock market rollercoaster never slows down!
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