Mueller: Russian officers launched leaks website in June 2016

Russian intelligence officers allegedly launched a website in June 2016 to release emails stolen from Clinton campaign officials, special counsel Robert Mueller alleged in an indictment released Friday.

Mueller alleges that the Russian officers initially registered the domain for DCLeaks.com in April 2016, and launched the site “[o]n or about June 8, 2016.”

“Starting in or around June 2016 and continuing through the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Conspirators used DCLeaks to release emails stolen from individuals affiliated with the Clinton Campaign,” the indictment reads.

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The complaint also alleges that officers used the site to release documents stolen in the past, including those from people affiliated with the Republican Party.

The allegations were included in Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian military officers for the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to meddle in the election have focused on a number of other events in the spring and summer of 2016.

One of those events, held June 9, 2016, was the infamous Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and several top Trump campaign officials.

President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after British music producer Rob Goldstone told him that Veselnitskaya had damaging information on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. replied to Goldstone in an email.

Veselnitskaya later reportedly told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she did not work for the Russian government and only met with Trump Jr. to discuss Russian sanctions imposed under the Magnitsky Act.

Despite her testimony, she told NBC News earlier this year that she had worked as an “informant” for the Russian government.

Mueller’s indictments released Friday come just days before President Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki for a bilateral summit.

Trump has faced pressure from lawmakers to bring up Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election when he sits down with Putin on Monday.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the election. 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday that Trump was “fully aware” of the latest indictments in the Russia probe ahead of the president’s trip to meet Putin.