12 Russian Intelligence Officers Indicted By Grand Jury In Special Counsel Probe For DNC Hacking

hackers spear phished volunteers and employees of Hillary Clinton's campaign and DNC

ABOVE VIDEO: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein holds a press conference for an announcement about Russian Interference during the 2016 Presidential Election. (CBS News Video)

(CBS NEWS) – Twelve Russians have been indicted by a grand jury in the special counsel probe for alleged hacking during the 2016 election, including for hacking emails of the Democratic National Committee, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Friday.

Rosenstein said the 12 defendants are all members of the Russian intelligence arm GRU, and attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election by “spear phishing” volunteers and employees of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. By allegedly doing this — tricking staffers into clicking on emails from rogue accounts — they were able to steal usernames and passwords, eventually hacking into the networks of the Democratic National Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee.

The GRU, Rosenstein said, created and controlled the groups D.C. Leaks and Guccifer 2.0., which in 2016, posted thousands of emails from Democratic party officials.

“The object of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the indictment reads.

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