ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has connected the Black Hammer Party, a Black-led radical group based in Atlanta, to an alleged Russian plot to sow discord in the United States, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.
The department announced Friday that Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian national with Kremlin connections, was secretly funding fringe political groups in Georgia, Florida and California, directing them to “publish pro-Russian propaganda, as well as other information designed to cause dissention in the United States and to promote secessionist ideologies.”
“Secret foreign government efforts to influence American elections and political groups threaten our democracy by spreading misinformation, distrust and mayhem,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. said in a statement. “The department is committed to ensuring U.S. laws protecting transparency in the electoral process and the political system are not undermined through foreign malign influence.”
