The Justice Department today charged a Russian woman for her role in a conspiracy to interfere with the 2018 U.S. election, marking the first criminal case prosecutors have brought against a foreign national for interfering in the upcoming Midterms.
Elena Khusyaynova, 44, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecutors said she managed the finances of “Project Lakhta,” a foreign influence operation they said was designed “to sow discord in the U.S. political system” by pushing arguments and misinformation online about a whole host of divisive political issues, including immigration, the Confederate flag, gun control, and the NFL national anthem protests.
The charges against Khusyaynova came just as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that it was concerned about “ongoing campaigns” by Russia, China and Iran to interfere with the upcoming Midterm elections and even the 2020 race — an ominous warning that comes just weeks before voters head to the polls.
The announcement, which was joined by the Justice Department, FBI and Department of Homeland Security, comes on the eve of a trip National Security Advisor John Bolton is making to Moscow, where he is expected to raise the issue with his counterparts.
Court papers said Khusyaynova’s operation was funded by Russian oligarch Yeveniy Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering.
A criminal complaint filed against the woman charges that she managed the finances of Project Lakhta, including detailed expenses for activities in the U.S. such as paying for activists, advertisements on social media, registering domain names, the purchase of proxy servers, and promoting news postings on social media.
Investigating Russian interference in U.S. elections has largely been the purview of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III — though his probe is focused on the 2016 election and the Trump campaign.
Mueller, whose work is ongoing, charged a dozen Russian military officers with hacking Democrats’ computers, as well as 13 people and three companies who his prosecutors’ allege ran an online propaganda operation to push voters away from Hillary Clinton and toward Donald Trump in 2016.
What remains to be seen is how and whether Mueller can connect President Trump or his campaign to those efforts.