The Justice Department on Friday announced the indictment of 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump get elected.

“Defendants operations included supporting the presidential campaign on then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” according to the indictment.

“Specialists were instructed to post content [on social media] that focused on politics in the USA and to use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest except Sanders and Trump — we support them,” a part of the 37-page indictment reads.

The indictment also said that some defendants “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign” without disclosing their links with Russia.

Justice said the individuals were given more than $1 million by a Russian who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin to fund the anti-Clinton campaign.

The indictment charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the US and three other defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.

The indictments are the most significant development to date in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian meddling and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.

The president has repeatedly dismissed charges that Russia interfered in the election, calling it “a hoax” and “fake news” — despite unanimity among the US intelligence community that Russia interfered to help him in his race against Clinton.