Following the indictment of 13 Russians for interfering in the 2016 election, Jason Chaffetz said Mitt Romney’s famous 2012 warning is being proven right.
Romney said in a 2012 presidential debate on foreign policy Moscow is the greatest geopolitical threat to the U.S. He was subsequently mocked by then-President Barack Obama, who said the “1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
Chaffetz, a Fox News contributor and former Utah congressman, noted that the indictment alleges that the Russians continued their activities after the election.
“I do think it dismantles the Democrats’ narrative that this was all about Trump. It’s all about the United States of America and sowing discord,” Chaffetz said on “Outnumbered Overtime.”
Indictment reveals Russians also organized anti-Trump rallies after election
“After the election, the defendants allegedly staged rallies to support the president-elect while simultaneously staging rallies to protest his election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a Friday press conference.
“For example, the defendants organized one rally to support the president-elect and another rally to oppose him, both in New York on the same day,” he said.
Friday’s indictment filing – signed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – says the defendants organized a Nov. 12 “Trump is NOT my President” rally in New York.
.. The indictment also revealed that the Russians organized a “Charlotte Against Trump” rally in North Carolina on Nov. 19.
The November rallies are the only anti-Trump events that the indictment links to these Russian actors. It does not draw any connections to the widespread anti-Trump protests that were organized after his inauguration.
.. Their “strategic goal” was to “sow discord in the U.S. political system,” the indictment said.
.. in order to conceal that they were based in Russia, the Russians would pretend to be American grassroots activists who were located in the U.S. but unable to meet in person.
.. The 13 Russians charged are:
- Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin;
- Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov;
- Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik;
- Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova;
- Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva;
- Sergey Pavlovich Polozov;
- Maria Anatolyrvna Bovda;
- Robert Sergetevich Bovda;
- Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly;
- Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev;
- Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko;
- Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina and
- Vladimir Venkov