WHO SAID WHAT
US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged a Russian Internet agency and more than a dozen Russians with interfering in the 2016 US presidential election campaign in an effort to support Donald Trump and denigrate his rival Hillary Clinton.
“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for president," he tweeted. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!”
Donald Trump, US President
“We have known that Russians meddled in the election, but these indictments detail the extent of the subterfuge. … Today's announcement underscores why we need to follow the facts and work to protect the integrity of future elections."
US House Speaker Paul Ryan
"What we learned was astonishing. We learned that the Russian were also organizing for Bernie Sanders. We learned that in late November 2016 they then turned their efforts to be against President Trump, that their goal was to sow discord and chaos, not to promote a certain candidate, and that no Americans were involved in this plot ... Democrats deceived this country and they were caught today."
Republican National Committee spokeswoman
Kayleigh McEnany
"For all those who have been asking 'where is the evidence of a crime?' - this is it. This is the criminal conspiracy. This is what President Trump and his allies have repeatedly called a 'hoax' and 'fake news.' Today's indictment shows precisely how the Russians worked to help the Trump campaign, in startling and extensive detail."
Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings
"The Special Counsel's indictments make absolutely clear that the Russians perpetrated a strategic effort to undermine and influence the 2016 US presidential election to support the campaign of Donald Trump, and are continuing to interfere with our elections. As desperately as President Trump insists that the Special Counsel investigation is a 'hoax', these latest indictments build on multiple guilty pleas and indictments of several Trump campaign officials, demonstrating the gravity of the Trump-Russia scandal."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
"While it does not include an allegation that any US persons conspired wittingly with the Russian actors, the indictment leaves open the vital question of whether Americans, including any associated with the Trump campaign, knowingly played a role in Russia's active measures campaign."
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff
“Mueller indictment of Russians starts to fill out the other side. Next: who are the actors in this country. The contours of the conspiracy are starting to be detailed. This is hugely significant."
Former US Attorney General Eric Holder
"The indictment is careful to say there are some unnamed conspirators and co-conspirators. We have no sense of who those might be and if they will be charged ever. ... There are no allegations in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant. But that is a telling statement by omission. There is no reason to think that is the only indictment released from Special Counsel's office."
Law professor at the University of California Leah Litman
Russian Reactions
"So as long as we don't see facts, everything else is blabber.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
"Thirteen people interfered in the U.S. elections?! Thirteen against an intelligence services budget of billions? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest developments and technologies? Absurd? Yes.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
“The Americans are very emotional people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. I am not at all upset that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them."
Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin
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