WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury empaneled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities on Friday, laying out evidence that foreign nationals interfered in the 2016 election and boosted the candidacy of President Donald Trump. Mueller, who was tasked with investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election, had already brought criminal charges to four aides to the Trump campaign. By September 2016, just before the presidential election, the monthly budget for election interference operations was more than $1.25 million. The defendants posed as Americans to create social media pages, purchase political advertisements and stage political rallies, the indictment alleges. After the indictment was made public on Friday, Trump doubled down on denying any coordination between his campaign and Russia.

Source: Huffington Post February 16, 2018 18:01 UTC