2018 was another roller coaster year in US politics, and for no one more than President Donald Trump and some of his closest allies.As Trump entered his second year in office, the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US electionand multiple congressional inquiries on the topicpicked up speed as well.Since January, the public has learned a multitude of new details about Russia's influence operations in the US during and after the election.These include the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians; crimes that key Trump allies committed that fell within the scope of the Russia probe, and even some that were outside its scope; Trump's reported efforts to obstruct Mueller's inquiry; and Russia's ongoing campaign to meddle in the US political sphere.Here are some of the biggest Trump-Russia bombshells of 2018:SEE ALSO:The wildest things we learned from books about Trump's White House in 2018Mueller charged 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities for meddling in the election.In February, Mueller's officechargedthree Russian entities and 13 Russian nationals with "violating US criminal laws in order to interfere with US elections and political processes."The charges were directed primarily at the Internet Research Agency (IRA), an infamous Russian "troll factory" located in St. Petersburg that focused on sowing political discord during the 2016 race by using Russian bots to spread fake news and pro-Trump propaganda on Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media platforms.The 13 Russian nationals charged were indicted for working in "various capacities to carry out" the agency's "interference operations targeting the United States."Among the defendants was Kremlin-allied Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, who is accused of using his companies, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, to bankroll the IRA's work.The charges did not allege that any American was a knowing participant in Russia's activities, or that the underlying conduct altered the outcome of the race.Mueller later indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the Democratic National Committee.Mueller's office indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in July who are suspected of playing a role in the hack of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 US election.The charges represented the first time Mueller's office directly pointed a finger at the Russian government for interfering in the election.The indictment said the conspiratorsin this case, the Russia-linked hacker Guccifer 2.0communicated with US persons about the release of stolen documents. In one instance, it said, the conspirator posing as Guccifer 2.0 contacted a person who was "in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump."Rick Gates pleaded guilty and testified against his former boss in a high stakes trial.Rick Gates, the former deputy chairman of the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty in February and began cooperating with Mueller's office. He was the star witness in the special counsel's case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who went on trial in August for several financial crimes arising from his political consulting work.At Manafort's trial in August, Gates admitted that he cheated Manafort out of millions of dollars to fund an extramarital affair.He also testified to several other exchanges with Manafort that appeared to show the two men conspiring to commit bank fraud and tax fraud at Manafort's direction.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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