Russian hackers 'stole Mueller inquiry evidence' Published duration 31 January 2019 Related Topics US election 2016

image copyright EPA image caption Russia has been accused of carrying out cyber-attacks across the globe, which it denies

Russian hackers stole and then misrepresented evidence connected to the continuing prosecution of Russian companies accused of leading a propaganda campaign to influence the 2016 US election, a court has heard.

Twitter user @HackingRedstone had broken into a Russian server in October, the court heard.

And they had then posted a link to an online file-sharing portal that they had said had contained special counsel Robert Mueller's documents about "the IRA and Russian collusion".

The IRA (Internet Research Agency) is one of three Russian companies accused in February 2018, alongside 13 individuals, of interfering to help Donald Trump win the election.

Both the Kremlin and President Trump deny any collusion.

The court document alleged the Twitter post had said: "We've got access to the special counsel Mueller's probe database as we hacked Russian server with info from the Russian troll case."

But, according to prosecutors in the case, the data that was linked to had been "altered and disseminated as part of a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the US political system".

The two other Russian companies that have been charged are Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering.

And Reuters reported that a journalist had received a message from a hacker claiming to have hacked a Russian legal firm that had received the evidence from Concord's US law firm, Reed Smith LLP.