White House Reacts to Indictments By Maintaining Russian Hacking is ‘Alleged’
President Donald Trump was a little busy when the Russian indictments were announced today, but the White House has responded.
To recap: 12 Russian intel officers were charged with hacking the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The Russians were behind DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 and, as the indictment clearly states, the conspirators posing as Guccifer were communicating with someone in “regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J Trump.”
The DOJ does emphasize, however, “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation that the conspiracy altered the vote count or changed any election result.”
The White House response basically just highlighted that bit:
A reaction from White House to pooled @anniekarni to Russian hacking indictments that doesn’t mention Russia or any more of condemnation pic.twitter.com/cXEKLNiTc4
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 13, 2018
Some reporters were thrown by the “alleged hacking” framing:
The White House statement on today's indictment includes no condemnation of Russia. It also refers to "alleged hacking." The fact that hacking happened is not an allegation.
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) July 13, 2018
White House refers to “the alleged hacking.” Emails being hacked is a fact, not an allegation. https://t.co/vWaHhcUDEj
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 13, 2018
This statement states a conspiracy as fact. But the hacking are “alleged.” Hard to know what’s intentional versus just a poorly written statement, but the net effect is the same. https://t.co/N3wGJofjG4
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 13, 2018
White House still calling it “alleged hacking” https://t.co/Na9V5kMIct
— Kate Brannen (@K8brannen) July 13, 2018
And as The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman pointed out, there’s no actual condemnation of Russia:
A reaction from White House to pooled @anniekarni to Russian hacking indictments that doesn’t mention Russia or any more of condemnation pic.twitter.com/cXEKLNiTc4
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 13, 2018
[photo via Getty Images]
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