By David S. Cloud

Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced charges against 13 Russians and three Russian companies Friday, accusing them of using stolen identities, fake campaign events and hundreds of social media accounts while spending millions of rubles to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a secret effort to aid the Trump campaign.

The 37-page indictment, the first charges by Mueller’s office accusing Moscow of illegal meddling in the election, says the Internet Research Agency, a Russian firm known for using troll accounts to post on news sites, orchestrated the interference campaign and that its operatives tried to communicate with at least three unnamed Trump campaign officials using fake identities.

“By early to mid-2016, Defendants’ operation included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” according to the indictment.

Although the indictment alleges that the Russians contacted unnamed people in the Trump campaign, it does not allege that any high-level Trump campaign officials cooperated with the effort.

“There is no allegation that any American was a willing participant” in the Russian plan, and there is no allegation that it altered the outcome of the election, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said in a brief news conference discussing the indictment.

Nonetheless, the indictment seriously undermines President Donald Trump’s repeated contention that the entire Russia investigation is a “hoax” or “witch hunt.” It details specific activities the Russians took, initially focused mostly on creating general discord in the U.S., but eventually focused specifically on boosting Trump’s campaign.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had been briefed on the indictment but made no other immediate comment.

The indictment accuses the 13 Russians and three businesses of “impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.”

One of those charged was Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a wealthy Russian businessman and caterer who has been publicly identified as a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A company controlled by Prigozhin called Concord Management and Consulting funded and directed the interference campaign in the U.S. and other countries, employing the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy internet troll factory that operated from St. Petersburg in Russia, according to the indictment, which refers to the agency as “the organization.”

“Concord was the organization’s primary source of funding for its interference operations,” the indictment reads. “Concord controlled funding, recommended personnel and oversaw organization activities.”

In 2014, the organization created a special department focused on using You Tube, Facebook and other social media platforms to influence the U.S. presidential election. The group had a “strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system,” according to the indictment, apparently quoting internal Russian documents.

More than 80 employees were assigned to the project and by 2016, its monthly budget exceeded $1.2 million a month, the charging documents say.