Article snippet: Special counsel MORE has indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Deputy Attorney General MORE announced the long-awaited indictment Friday at a press conference in Washington, D.C. "The indictment charges 12 Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election," Rosenstein said. The twelfth individual is charged with conspiring to hack into systems used to administer elections — including hacking into a website of a state elections board and sending spear-phishing emails to state elections officials. Rosenstein said that the Justice Department intends to transfer this specific case to the department's national security division from the special counsel's office — meaning that the case will remain open even if Mueller's investigation is shut down. The successful apprehension of the Russians is highly unlikely, given that they are out of reach of U.S. law enforcement in Moscow. The indictment was returned by a grand jury in the District of Columbia on Friday. Reports began to emerge in late 2017 that U.S. prosecutors were eyeing charges against Russians in the DNC hack. The Wall Street Journal reported last November that the Justice Department had identified six Russian government officials implicated in the hack and were considering whether to indict them. The unclassified U.S. intelligence community assessment released last January blamed Russia’s m... Link to the full article to read more