Justice Department unveils charges in Russian plot to interfere in local US elections

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN

The Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled new charges against members of small separatist political groups accused of working with agents of the Russian government to influence a local Florida election with aspirations of extending those efforts to the 2020 presidential campaign.

The indictment expands a criminal case involving Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian national accused of working with Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, agents to orchestrate a years-long influence campaign aimed at sowing discord in the US and interfering in American elections beginning in 2014.

The defendants wanted the effort to continue into 2020, prosecutors allege, but it is not clear from court documents whether they took any real action to affect the presidential election that year.

Separately, the Justice Department announced charges on Tuesday against a Russian national accused of recruiting Americans from US academic and research institutions into pro-Russian programs and sending information on US citizens to the Russian government.

Natalia Burlinova, a 39-year-old Russian citizen, has been charged with acting as an agent of the Russian government.

Ionov was originally charged in July with conspiring to have US citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. The new indictment announced Tuesday includes four US citizens and two Russian nationals facing charges for allegedly participating in the plot.

“The Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “The indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.”

Ionov said in a statement to CNN: “There is no democracy in the United States anymore, it’s time to take to the streets and expel the authorities from the White House, they have reached the point of complete absurdity.”

According to court documents, Ionov was supervised by FSB officers Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov, who are based in Russia and face charges.

The three men recruited American separatist activists and political organizations to push Russian propaganda and worked with the local groups to run candidates in at least two local elections in Florida, prosecutors allege.

As a part of that effort, Ionov partnered with four US citizens and members of the African People’s Socialist Party — Omali Yeshitela, Penny Joanne Hess, Jesse Nevel and Agustus C. Romain Jr.

Romain also is a founder of Black Hammer, another political movement based in Georgia.

Ionov, Sukhodolov and Popov sent Russian propaganda and disinformation to the Americans, prosecutors allege, who then spread it to their own organizations. The Russian nationals also helped to organize and fund protests and political campaigns over several years, and Ionov used Russian state media to promote the African People’s Socialist Party and Black Hammer.

Together, prosecutors say Ionov, Sukhodolov and Popov funded the campaign of a Florida resident who ran for public office in 2019 and participated in campaign events. The candidate wasn’t identified in court documents, nor was the outcome of the election included.

Prosecutors previously alleged that Ionov also sent updates on the campaign’s progress to FSB agents — now identified as Sukhodolov and Popov — discussing the effort as “our election campaign” and referring to the candidate as the “candidate whom we supervise.”

Ionov discussed the 2020 election as the “main topic of the year,” prosecutors say, and wrote reports for Popov about how the campaigns he had assisted in Florida would make it possible “to carry out more effective campaigns during municipal elections” and “lay the groundwork for a new electoral base.”

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