The White House responded to the Friday indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller of Russian nationals who attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election by calling on the country to “unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.”
The statement added that President Trump “been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.”
“It is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions.”
President Donald Trump also offered his own personal reaction on Twitter.
Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018
The president referenced the indictment’s finding that the Russian government created a sub agency known as the “translator project” which was “focused on the U.S. population and conducted operations on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube,” adding that the strategic goal of interfering in the 2016 US election was developed all the way back in May 2014.
Trump also referenced Friday comments by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
“There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge,” Rosenstein told reporters at a press conference. “And the nature of the scheme was the kept defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were ordinary American political activists, even going so far as to base their activities on a virtual private network here in the United States so if anybody traced it back to the first jump, they appeared to be Americans.”
Rosenstein specifically noted “there is no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election.”
