Pretty comprehensive write up by Wired.
https://www.wired.com/story/mueller-indictment-dnc-hack-russia-fancy-bear/
https://www.wired.com/story/mueller-indictment-dnc-hack-russia-fancy-bear/
While the new charges add tremendous detail to the public knowledge of Russia's unprecedented attack on the election, Mueller's indictment also leaves us with big, unanswered questions—and creates new questions, including three big ones:
What about Cozy Bear? The new indictment only covers the GRU hackers known as Fancy Bear. However, numerous public reports have pointed to involvement by the FSB, the Russian state intelligence service and successor to the KGB, and a hacking group there known as Cozy Bear. Reporting over the last year has hinted that Dutch intelligence provided detailed information to the US about the role and efforts in the 2016 election—up to and including individual photographs of intelligence officers at work in connection with the attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported last November that at least six individual Russian government hackers had been identified; it's unclear whether Mueller's indictment covers those six, but given the prevailing information that both the FSB and GRU were involved in the attacks, are there more charges pending about other FSB intelligence officers?
What about Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos, or any other Americans? One of the oddest storylines of the year-long Mueller probe has been Trump aide Roger Stone's did-he-or-didn't-he communications with the pseudonymous Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. Rosenstein made clear in his remarks, "The conspirators corresponded with several Americans through the internet. There is no allegation in the indictment that the Americans knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers." But that phrasing seems carefully chosen—and mirrors his comments in the indictment of the Internet Research Agency about the limits of that indictment. It doesn't rule out that future indictments might focus on the criminal behavior of Americans corresponding with the GRU or the IRA—nor would Americans necessarily have to know they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers to be guilty of various crimes.
What's the role of WikiLeaks? Rosenstein pointedly noted that the individuals charged Friday "transferred stolen documents to another organization, not named in the indictment, and discussed timing the release of the documents in an attempt to enhance the impact on the election." That organization almost certainly was the website WikiLeaks, or at least a cut-out that handed the documents to WikiLeaks, since that website ultimately published them. Then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo last year referred to WikiLeaks as "non-state hostile intelligence service," saying the Julian Assange-founded website "walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service" and is "often abetted by state actors like Russia." Pompeo also said that the Russian state TV channel RT, which was similarly deeply involved in many of the state-backed election propaganda efforts in 2016, has "actively collaborated" with WikiLeaks. Were his words omens that the controversial site itself would be the subject of a future indictment?
