The Russian flag flies in front of a monument to Lenin in Bakhchysarai, Crimea, September 27, 2017. (Pavel Rebrov / Reuters)

An unidentified 2016 congressional candidate reached out to Russian intelligence officers collectively posing as a Romanian hacker under the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0 for dirt on a political opponent, according to an indictment filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday.

The indictment, which names twelve members of the Russian military intelligence unit known as the GRU, mentions an unnamed congressional candidate who, in August of 2016, asked Guccifer 2.0 “for stolen documents” related to his or her opponent. Guccifer 2.0, then claiming to be an individual Romanian hacker responsible for breaching the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers, provided the stolen documents, according to the indictment.


In addition to the unnamed congressional candidate, the indictment mentions several other individuals and groups who communicated with the Russian intelligence officers in order to gain stolen documents. Among those individuals were several reporters and a “then-registered state lobbyist” who received “personal identifying information for more than 2,000 Democratic donors.”

The indictment also claims that Russian intelligence officers, again posing as Guccifer 2.0, communicated in August 2016 with someone who was “in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign.”

“thank for writing back. . .do ?nd [sic] anyt[h]ing interesting in the docs i posted??” Guccifer 2.0 wrote to the individual associated with the Trump campaign, according to the indictment. “Please tell me if i can help anyhow. . .it would be a great pleasure to me.?”


Those remarks mirror messages that Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant and campaign advisor, has admitted to exchanging with Guccifer 2.0.


“It was so perfunctory, brief, and banal I had forgotten it,” Stone, the self-described “dirty trickster” political operative, told the Washington Times when asked about the messages in March.

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