Indictment alleges Russians tried to suppress minority vote in 2016

BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 02/16/18 02:04 PM EST

Federal prosecutors are alleging that Russians took steps to try and influence U.S. minority groups to not vote in the 2016 election, according to a federal indictment filed Friday.

In the charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office Friday, prosecutors claim that the Russians “began to encourage U.S. minority groups not to vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election or to vote for a third-party U.S. presidential candidate.”

The charges state that the Russians used an Instagram account called “Woke Blacks” to post a message reading, “[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Black to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’re surely be better off without voting AT ALL.”

Another message posted by the Russians on the Instagram account “Blacktivist” read, “Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote.” The post references third-party candidate Jill Stein. And messages posted on Russian-run social media accounts called “United Muslims of America” also called for Muslims to boycott the election.

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http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/374250-russians-allegedly-used-social-media-to-try-and-suppress-minority