White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said a new round of indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation show “incontrovertible” evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, McMaster said “with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible” that Russia interfered in the election, according to The Associated Press.
The consensus of the U.S. intelligence community is that Russians did seek to influence the 2016 presidential election, although the investigation has yet to reach a conclusion on whether Russia influenced the outcome.
McMaster also reportedly dismissed a question about future U.S. cooperation with Russia on cybersecurity.
{mosads}“We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage,” McMaster said.
McMaster spoke at the conference immediately after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said the new Mueller indictments were “just blabber,” the AP reported, according to a translation.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the slew of indictments at a press briefing Friday. Thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian groups were charged with multiple counts of attempting to interfere in the 2016 election.
The indictment alleges the goal of the Russians was to support then-candidate Donald Trump and hurt Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Some of the Russians allegedly posed as U.S. people and communicated with “unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.”
Rosenstein noted that there is no allegation in the indictment that Americans had any knowledge of the operation.
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling it a “hoax” crafted by Democrats. He’s also labeled Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt.”
In a tweet following the release of the indictments, Trump claimed the indictment showed his campaign “did nothing wrong” and that there was “no collusion” with Russia.