Justice Department unveils charges in Russian plot to interfere in local US elections

The Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled new charges against members of small separatist political groups accused of working with agents of the Russian government to influence a local Florida election with aspirations of extending those efforts to the 2020 presidential campaign.

The indictment expands a criminal case involving Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian national accused of working with Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, agents to orchestrate a years-long influence campaign aimed at sowing discord in the US and interfering in American elections beginning in 2014.