for meddling in the election. alleging they communicated one witting people tried to the trump campaign. jessica schneider will get into more detail shortly. here is the nub. putin s chef using an online organization operating out of st. petersburg russia. defendant organization had a strategic goal to so disskort in the u.s. political system. defends posted derogatory information about a number of candidates and by early to mid-2016, defts operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate don t j. trump. and disparaging hillary clinton.