With 60 days to go until the U.S. presidential election, foreign actors – primarily Russia, China and Iran – are “ramping up” their influence campaigns, according to an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
“The closer we get to Election Day, we see more activity by foreign actors,” the ODNI official told reporters on a conference call Friday.
ODNI officials and an FBI official on the call outlined what they said are threats facing the upcoming election, and said they expect the influence activity from foreign governments will continue as Election Day draws closer.
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Russia is still the “preeminent and most active foreign influence threat” to the election, officials said, and pointed to actions taken this week by the U.S. Department of Justice as an example of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2024 election.
“Russia is looking to amplify divisive rhetoric and influence electoral outcomes, which both speak to Moscow’s broader foreign policy goals, weaken the United States and undermining Washington’s support for Ukraine,” according to an ODNI official. Moscow is further attempting to influence “voter preferences in favor of the former president and diminish the prospects of the vice president,” according to the official.
The allegations come as Russian President Vladmir Putin said Thursday that Russia supports Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“The [intelligence community] does not take Putin’s public statements as representative of Russia’s overt intentions,” an ODNI official said, pointing to instances where Putin’s actions were different than his words, including his statements that Russia wouldn’t invade Ukraine, which it did in February 2022.
Not only is Russia working to influence the presidential election, it’s also working up and down the ballot to influence other races, according to the official.
The ODNI claims come two days after the Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet Russia Today, or RT, alleging that they implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”
The unnamed Tennessee-based company is described in the indictment as “U.S. Company-1.” However, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that the company is Tenet Media, the website for which features videos from the popular right-wing and pro-Trump commentators Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern and two others.
The indictment does not allege that any commentators knowingly took part in this alleged scheme, specifically saying that two commentators were “deceive[d].” Tenet Media personalities Tim Pool and Benny Johnson have since said publicly that they were victims of a $10 million Russian influence scheme.
Another election threat actor is Iran, which has been called out by the intelligence community for its attempts to infiltrate both presidential campaigns.
“Iran is making a greater effort than in the past to influence this year’s elections, even as its tactics and approaches are similar to prior cycles,” an ODNI official said. “Like Russia, Iran has a multi-pronged approach that looks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process.”
The U.S. intelligence community has also assessed China as attempting to influence the down-ballot races, but currently not the presidential election.
“PRC online influence actors have also continued small-scale efforts on social media to engage U.S. audiences on divisive political issues, including protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict, and promote negative stories about both political parties,” according to an ODNI official.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have been offered briefings by the intelligence community about election threats, officials said on Friday’s call. However, they wouldn’t say whether either campaign had accepted the invitation or had been briefed. Officials on the call also wouldn’t say whether they’ve given defensive briefings to the victims of the alleged threat actors indicted this week.
An ODNI official said Friday that there also are other countries engaged in efforts to influence the election but did not name them, adding that those efforts were done more overtly.
“These activities include lobbying political figures to try to curry favor with them in the event that they are elected to office,” the official said.
