Feds: Mystery witness will implicate ‘Putin’s chef’ in election interference

[Rogue Valley]

Feds: Mystery witness will implicate ‘Putin’s chef’ in election interference

The trial for a Russian firm is set to open in Washington next month.

Yevgeny Prigozhin - Putin crony and owner of Russia's 24/7 troll factory.

3/4/20
U.S. prosecutors say they have a witness who will directly implicate a Russian businessman known as “Putin’s chef” in schemes to carry out election interference overseas. The mystery witness is prepared to testify at a criminal trial set to open in Washington next month in a case special counsel Robert Mueller brought accusing three Russian companies and 13 Russian individuals of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a prosecutor declared at a recent court hearing. The anticipated testimony will focus on the most prominent Russian national charged in the indictment, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg restaurateur who enjoys close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and who has expanded his business empire to become a key contractor for the Russian military. Prosecutors say Prigozhin ran the Internet Research Agency, a Russian firm that allegedly sponsored and coordinated online troll activity during the 2016 U.S. election.

A number of former employees of IRA have spoken out publicly about social media work they did from the firm’s four-story St. Petersburg headquarters. Separate teams of Russian and English speakers generated content aimed at bolstering Putin in Russia and fomenting strife in the U.S., the ex-workers said. It is not clear whether any of the ex-employees who have spoken to reporters or offered public accounts in other venues had direct dealings with Prigozhin, who has denied any connection to IRA or election interference.

Since Moscow would never extradite an individual of Prighozin's status (or any other criminal for that matter), this trial is primarily to prove Prighozin's cyber attack campaign on the US 2016 election.

Prighozin also owns the Wagner Group of mercenaries which most often acts as a private substitute for the Russian military and provides Moscow with "plausible deniability".