Khusyaynova Is the First to Be Charged With a Criminal Case of Russian Interference Regarding the 2018 Midterms

Khusyaynova, who is based in St. Petersburg and is not currently in U.S. custody, is the first individual to be charged with Russian interference in the 2018 elections, per Politico. The department identified the operation as “a Russian umbrella effort funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin and two companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting, and Concord Catering.”

The charges come as top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies warn Americans about ongoing efforts by Russia, China and other foreign actors to interfere in the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections. The charges announced on Friday centered on a conspiracy that included the creation of thousands of social media and email accounts that appeared to be run by U.S. persons as part of what the conspirators referred to as “information warfare against the United States.”

Referring to Khusyaynova, the Justice Department said, “The financial documents she controlled include detailed expenses for activities in the United States, such as expenditures for activists, advertisements on social media platforms, registration of domain names, the purchase of proxy servers, and promoting news postings on social network.”

The case appears to be an outgrowth of a larger case filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February, accusing Prigozhin and others of interfering in the 2016 election by pushing divisive social media campaigns that attacked Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. For example, members of the conspiracy advised that Sen. John McCain, who is now deceased, should be branded “an old geezer who has lost it,” and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., should be portrayed as “a complete and absolute nobody.”

“The strategic goal of this alleged conspiracy, which continues to this day, is to sow discord in the U.S. political system and to undermine faith in our democratic institutions,” said Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
The United States Justice Department charges 44-year old Elena Khusyaynova of Saint Petersburg with conspiracy to defraud the United States for managing the financing of the social media troll operation that included the Internet Research Agency.