That the Russians meddled in U.S. elections in 2016 is a fact disputed by almost no one save, perhaps, President Trump.
His refusal to hold Vladimir Putin's hackers properly responsible for interference is especially dangerous because it leaves the DNA of American democracy vulnerable to compromise in 2018, 2020 and beyond.
So kudos to the Justice Department for Friday indicting Russian national Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova for allegedly overseeing a social media information warfare campaign called Project Lakhta, aimed at influencing next month's midterms. As chief accountant at the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, Khusyaynova oversaw a $35 million operation mining and manipulating American divisions on hot-button topics like "the Second Amendment, the Confederate flag, race relations, LGBT issues, the Women's March, and the NFL national anthem debate."
Trump's reaction to the ongoing threat?
"It had nothing to do with my campaign," said the president Friday. "The hackers, a lot of them probably like Hillary Clinton better than me."
He's still obsessed with a woman who was on the ballot two years ago, and haunted by allegations of 2016 Russian collusion, when this year's elections hang in the balance. Super.
