Representative Elijah Cummings explains why the indictments help the obstruction of justice inquiry:
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) called special counsel Robert Mueller’s Friday indictments of Russian nationals for alleged U.S. election interference "evidence" of a crime President Trump "tried to cover up."
“For all of those who have been asking ‘where is the evidence of a crime?’ — this is it. This is the criminal conspiracy,” Cummings said in a statement. “This is what President Trump and his allies have repeatedly called a ‘hoax’ and ‘fake news.’ This is what they tried to cover up.”
“This is what we might never have known if President Trump had been successful in shutting down this investigation,” he added.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said the charges “show precisely how the Russians worked to help the Trump campaign, in startling and extensive detail.”
Cummings also highlighted how the Russian groups and nationals had allegedly taken steps to try and suppress the minority vote during the 2016 election.
The Hill
And the indictments are not directly related to the hacked emails. Those are yet to come.