Friday at a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential election.
Rosenstein said, “People who speculate about federal investigations usually do not know all of the relevant facts. We do not try cases on television or in congressional hearings. Most anonymous leaks are not from the government officials who are actually conducting these investigations. We follow the rule of law, which means that we follow procedures. And we reserve judgment. We complete our investigations, and we evaluate all of the relevant evidence before we reach any conclusion.”
He added, “That is how the American people expect their Department of Justice to operate and that is how our department is going to operate. In our justice system, everyone who is charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. It should go without saying that people who are not charged with a crime also are presumed innocent. The indictment was returned today because prosecutors determined that the evidence was sufficient to present these allegations to a federal grand jury. Our analysis is based solely on the facts, the law, and Department of Justice policies.”
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