System, manipulated us on behalf of Vladimir Putin and they did it online and in person on our soil. Russians came to swing states in the United States, pretending to be americans and tried to convince us americans that theyre part of the system. Not working against it. And the russians say this indictment posed as americans and communicated with unwitting People Associated with the Trump Campaign to try to coordinate political activities. Thats a blockbuster charge. Russians, thought to be americans, working with Trump Supporters or allies to do politics together. The Russian Investigation is the opposite of a hoax. And now indictments against russian organizations and persons have been handed up. This afternoon, the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 13 russian nationals and three Russian Companies with setting up an intricate and elaborate milliondollar plus plot to influence american voters. Now we know how vulnerable we were and how effective the russians became. The defendants allegedly conducted what they called Information Warfare against the United States. With the stated goal of spreading distrust toward the candidates and the political system in general. Shepard the feds charge the russians set up the elaborate system made to appear to originate in the United States, operated by americans but actually controlled from and paid for by russian leadership. Coordinated out of a large bot farm in st. Petersburg, russia. This dated back to 2013. A coordinated ontheground effort. They bought properties in the United States, set up systems in the United States in a bold attack on the United States with a longterm vision. In order to hide the russian origins of their activities, the defendants allegedly purchased space on computer servers located here in the United States in order to set up a virtual private network. The defendants allegedly used that infrastructure to establish hundreds of accounts on social Media Networks such as facebook, instagram and twitter making it appear that those accounts were controlled by persons located in the United States. Shepard one day they set up two rallies. One in support of the republican candidate, one in opposition to the republican candidate in the same city. New york. At the same time. The russian defendants allegedly used the infrastructure to establish hundreds of accounts on facebook, instagram and twitter. Russian bots are very very real. They engaged in Information Warfare. They attacked our democracy, attacking it now and coming for us in the 2018 midterms. The 38page indictment makes it perfectly clear, u. S. Investigators have since infiltrated this system on the ground in st. Petersburg, russia. Th they bested the russians cold. We do not know what comes next. The chances that theyll ever actually face justice, thats another matter. But they have been called out. We cannot know what gorge papadopoulos and mike flynn are doing. We dont know what rick gates notes in connect shun with his reported plea deal. We dont know what information or documents they offered to the prosecutor to get a plea deal to cooperating. Now just today, in the last hour, theres a four cooperator. His name is richard pineto. We learned of him 45 minutes ago. He was indicted two weeks ago. Hes a california man that pleaded guilty to identity fraud, knowingly using the ids of other people in connection with unlawful activity and paid for doing so. He bought and sold Bank Account Numbers to get around online Payment Security systems for three years. In exchange for pleading guilty, hes cooperating with mueller. Thats four people with knowledge cooperating. One more thing. Mueller has identified at least 30 communications between Campaign Officials of the Trump Organization and the russians. We do not know if any of those that were contacted were indicted today. Information warfare. Our chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge from the Justice Department. That was extraordinary. It was, shepard. I want you to get this concept into you remember mind, which is something called the gray zone. This is the battle space between peace and conventional warfare and where bad actors like russia and north korea and china go to play. They cannot compete directly with the United States militarily or economically. What this indictment laid out today is a classic example of gray zone warfare. The use of information. The russians play the long game. This indictment statements clearly that they started seeding this operation back in 2013 and 2014, and then they ramped it up in 2016 taking about five or six dozen employees just to focus on this issue of russian interference in the election. Heres the Deputy Attorney general from earlier today. Use stolen or fictitious american identities, Fraudulent Bank accounts and false documents. The defendants posed as politically and socially active americans. Advocating for and against particular candidates. They established social media pages and groups to communicate with unwitting americans. The u. S. Intelligence Community Assessment about the election said the russians were aiming to help candidate trump and to hurt or disparage Hillary Clinton. That is repeated in the indictment today, but its amplified with additional evidence that raised a high enough bar that they could pursue a criminal prosecution. The key question among reporters is today is whether anyone on the Trump Campaign knew they were dealing with russians at the time or they thought they were dealing with american citizens. Heres the Deputy Attorney general once again. Theres no allegation in this indictment that any american was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election. The indictment makes a point that you mentioned earlier. After the election, the russians and through these cutouts that appeared to be americans organized rallies to support the newlyelected president of the United States, but then also rallies to work against his election. If you look at some of the fine print in the indictment, you see its an allegation that they also wanted to not help candidate cruz and not help candidate rubio and they wanted to help Bernie Sanders who was Hillary Clintons direct opponent, shep. Shepard im looking at some of the names of these accounts. Some of them have been retweeted by members of the first family. One of them had purported to be the gop spot of the state of tennessee. Tngop. Its a bot. Its russians. Its been tweeting at us and trying to influence us with thousands and thousands of followers for years. Well, one of the issues that came through to me at the Justice Department is that the Deputy Attorney general made the point of operations in the future. You know from earlier this week, all of the intelligence officials made the case theres evidence that the russians are targeting the midterm elections. What we heard today is not in a vacuum. But the russians played a long game, they are chess players and they also see this as an inexpensive way to create chaos and discord within the system and undermine the democratic process. I asked the Deputy Attorney general what the chances were of these russians being brought to the United States for prosecution. Here its his answer. No communication with the russians about this. Well follow the ordinary process of seeking cooperation and extradition. In my experience, an indictment like this has two functions. It puts out in the Public Square information that every american can read and make their own decisions about what happened in the 2016 election and theres enough evidence to bring criminal charges. If theyre indicted, there would be a platform to bring charges against them. Shepard you asked about that. Extradition is out there. Were waiting for edward snowden, right . Shepard yeah. So its not as if you can them. No. Shepard catherine, this document, have you ever seen anything like it . I have never seen a document white like this. I have never seen this is a lot of leg work and a lot of good Old Fashioned shoe leather investigation that went into this document. What also struck me at the News Conference today is that this Deputy Attorney general had a tone that was very sort of politically neutral in many ways. He answered the questions that people had about whether people on the Trump Campaign knew they were dealing with russians and he was quite category that they thought they were dealing with american citizens. Well leave that for others to decide. That was his position today and this was a National Security issue with a pending midterm election. I have never seen a document like this. I think it speaks to this level of sophistication with the russians. Remember this term the gray zone, this is the theme going forward. This is where the russians go to play when they cannot compete with us and one of their goals is to sow discord and chaos and undermine our faith in the democratic process. Most of all, to divide us. I think you can make the argument that is one of the objectives that they have achieved in this. Shepard no doubt. Thank you, catherine. Youre welcome. Shepard if you look at the indictment and you should, the russians have engaged in Information Warfare to disrupt hour democracy. Its worth looking into. Every time the prosecutors use the word defendant or defendants they follow it by co conspirators. We dont know if theyre americans. We dont know if theyre members of the Trump Campaign. We dont have any of that information yet. This is not over. Theres much more to go here. Theres two cooperating now theres three cooperating now. Another about to cooperate. Rick gates deal is about to come through and well know more. The russia investigation will continue and we will ask the question, the congress of the United States has said Vladimir Putin must be sanctioned for all hes done against the United States of america. The president has said no. Why . And does this change that . Should it . Well speak with an attorney next. Coming up from the fox news deck on a friday afternoon. Mom and dad got a new car. Its not theirs. Its mine. Mine. Mine. And it always will be, forever and forever. The new rx 350l with three rows for seven passengers. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. This is the story of Green MountainCoffee Roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. First, we head to vermont. And go to our coffee shop. And meet dave. Hey. Why is dark magic so spellbindingly good, he asks . Let me show you. Lets go. So we climb. Hike. See a bear. Woah. Reach the top. Dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. Like these mountains, each amazing on their own. But together . Magical. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters packed with goodness. Shepard continuing coverage on the indictment issued by the special counsel and the Deputy Attorney general. Just getting video. The president has deported and of course listen. The reporters will ask him questions. Will you punish russia . Come over and talk. Do you feel vindicated . Will you put sanctions on russia. Nothing on russia, mr. President . Mr. President. Shepard sanctions on russia, mr. President . Will there be sanctions on russia . They attacked our democracy. Congress recommended sanctions. Will you sanction . These are live pictures from joint base andrews. The indictment claims the defendants and others that worked with them. As i said to you, we continue to watch this, the defendants and theyve co conspirators. If they work to communicate with unwitting members of the Trump Campaign and as well as their volunteers. Theres no indication that anyone in the Trump Campaign was aware of the russian activity. Lets go to Jeffery Cramer and former u. S. Assistant attorney general. What do these indictments say to you . A few things. First, i think its safe to say that you can put the phrase russian hoax to the side. Thats been established. The other thing that struck me after a couple readings of the indictment is how wellcoordinated they were. Shepard incredible. Its been years. They set up what they needed to set up with respect to servers. They figure out how to get the money in. Mueller did a good job of tieing that individual up with a bow and a plea agreement. And they played the lawn game. If this wasnt disrespected, this would have continued going forward. If you have to look at it stepping back for a second, as any sort of conspiracy, very well constructed, very wellfunded and very wellexecuted. Shepard and out of moscow. The bot farm is in st. Petersburg but the money is coming from vlad. Its safe to say. Theres some things that looks like they had russian corporate records which usually in this case, a mutual lateral assistance treaty which is how u. S. Authorities get information from foreign governments. Thats not how they got that here. They had an address, a semblance of information in russia. Theres no doubt that this has a hand of the state government. Shepard jeffery, from my reading of this, they didnt solve this, didnt connect the dots online. This seems to indicate our folks infiltrated this operation in st. Petersburg, russia, on the ground. Thats a safe interpretation. Certainly they had some inside information, which indicated they had some data in st. Petersburg. It started to unravel and they had somebody on the inside. You go out from there. You follow the money. Sooner or later, the money has to get out. In this case it went through paypal. Thats how they found this individual in california. Shepard this is not the end. Obviously they still have the cooperating witnesses. Ones that were close to the president. Mike flynn, rick gates about to be there, the banking. What could someone offer and to what end to get a plea deal from this man . Theres certainly its a mosaic when you put these things together. Theres individuals that have pled guilty. Maybe they have information. Maybe papadopoulos has information. Maybe he doesnt. Certainly theyre going to try to extract what they can. We dont know yet where the individuals who have been indicted, some of whom have pled guilty figure into this or is it more tangential. One thing is safe to say, if you look at what mueller and his team have done to date, its impressive. Theyre moving at light speed, putting together sophisticated cases, not just this but the manafort case and the flynn matter as well. And theyre moving forward. This is a north south indictment and theyre going forward. Shepard from all that i have read, it is absolutely certain, according to the indictment, that thousands and thousands of you that went to rallies across this nation in support of, in opposition to, if you went to rallies across this nation, many of those rallies, jeffery, were not set up by americans. They were set up by russians. Promoted by russians, advertised by russians, paid for by russians and americans came to yell at each other at the russian at russian manipulation. If it wasnt so tragic, could be comical. We were our own worst enemies here. We were easy doops. Retweeting information organized by the russians, originated with the bots and in st. Petersburg and a foreign entity. Shepard one other thing they tried to do, discourage minorities from voting. Particular hype and hatred for trump is misleading the people and forcing blacks to vote killery. We cannot resort to the lesser of two evils. Then we would be better off not voting at all. One example from the Instagram Account called woke blacks. They went to michigan, florida, swing states. They had our system down pat. You have to wonder if somebody was helping them. Unwittingly or purposely, somebody was helping them. Theres several takeaways from this. Youre spot on. If you just step back, one seems clearly not to elect Hillary Clinton and to elect donald trump. Although theres a reference to Bernie Sanders and jill stein in there as well. Shepard second thing is we want to listen to the president. He has tweeted. Ill tell you in a moment. Shepard weve all seen at times he will come to the cameras. The president has tweeted and heres the new tweet that just came out. It says russia started their antiu. S. Campaign in 2014 long before i announced that i would run for president. Thats true. The results of the election