The crime?
“supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”????
I guess in their mind that is a crime.
The statement read: “A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment on Feb. 16, 2018, against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of violating U.S. criminal laws in order to interfere with U.S. elections and political processes. The indictment charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.”
Wire fraud and bank fraud. Most likely Mueller was investigating ‘suspicious’ Russian people associated with Trump campaign in any way for ties to the collusion narrative and found alleged illegalities in their financial doings and bank records ...aka like Manafort
Conspiracy to commit bank/wire fraud? But not actually committing it? Maybe that will come later. I’ve said from the beginning, there is a 1st Amendment problem. Russians are allowed to speak freely inside the USA. They cannot vote. They cannot contribute to campaigns. They probably cannot buy political ads (but that is a very unpoliced aspect of the whole business of campaigns in general). But they can say who they like, who they hate, and who they wish to win and why.
Nothing to do with Trump...only some communications with UNWITTING campaign workers while not disclosing their ties to Russia.
In other words, a nothingburger related to the Trump campaign.