Russia The government’s director of national intelligence said in a rare news conference on Wednesday night that Iran had received some information about US voter registration and was trying to sow discord in the upcoming elections.
“We have already seen it Iran Sending e-mails designed to intimidate voters, provoke social unrest and harm President Trump, “said John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence.
The The FBI “The United States will impose costs on any foreign country interfering in the 2020 US elections,” said Chris Ware, director of the IAEA.
Vare also warned against buying false information about the election results. “You have to make sure your vote counts. Conversely, unproven claims should be viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion, ”Vare said.
Democrats immediately raised the issue with Ratcliffe’s insistence that Iran was sowing discord to the detriment of Trump, and the director of intelligence was characterized by “Partisan Hack”. Ratcliffe is a former Republican congressman and Democrats have been critical of Trump’s choice of documents to help him.
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday night that he had met during a classified briefing on the intervention. “I had a strong impression that it was aimed at undermining confidence in the election and not a specific statistic, It’s better for our democracy than not. ”
“I’m surprised that DNI Radcliffe said in this press conference,” She told MSNBC’s Rachel Meadow.
Trump And many of his supporters have been involved in spreading misinformation that votes are not being counted and making baseless allegations that ballots can be thrown easily.
Ratcliffe said Iran was also distributing video content to indicate that individuals could receive fraudulent ballots from foreign countries – and warned Americans not to accept the information. “These actions are attempts by persecuted by desperate opponents,” he said.
The news conference, held as Democratic voters in at least four battlefield states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, received threatening emails, false claims that they were from the right-wing group Proud Boys, warned. That is, if we get “we will follow you” Trump did not vote.
The voter-intimidation operation explicitly used email addresses obtained from state voter registration lists, including party affiliations and home addresses, and may include email addresses and phone numbers. Those addresses were then used in a clearly comprehensive spamming operation. The senders claimed that they knew who the recipient was voting for in the November 3 election, for which voting is in full swing.
Federal authorities have long warned of the possibility of such operations, as lists of such registries are not difficult to obtain.
“These emails are intended to intimidate and undermine the confidence of American voters in our election,” Christopher Krebs, the top election security official at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted Tuesday night after reports of the emails surfaced.
He appealed to voters not to go for “sensational and baseless claims”, and reminded them that ballot secrecy is guaranteed by law in all states. “The last line of defense in election security is you – the American voters.”
Although state-backed Russian hackers have been known to infiltrate US election infrastructure in 2016, there is no evidence that cybersecurity experts have ever considered Iran to be the worst performer in online spying.
Alireza Miryosafi, an Iranian spokeswoman for the United Nations, told ABC News that Iran had no interest in interfering in the US election and called on the United States to “end its deadly and dangerous allegations.”
“Unlike the United States, Iran does not interfere in other countries’ elections. The world is watching the US’s desperate public efforts to question the outcome of its election at the highest level, “he said. “These allegations are nothing more than a scenario to undermine voter confidence in the security of the US election, and they are absurd.”
Ahead of the FBI’s news conference, top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a statement warning: “As we enter the final week of the election, we want every American – including members of the media – to We urge you to be wary of believing or spreading unbelief. , Votes and sensational claims related to voting. ”
The statement came from Florida Republican Marco Rubio and Virginia Democrat Mark Warner.
“State and local election officials are in regular contact with federal law enforcement and cyber security professionals and are working around the clock to ensure that the 2020 elections are safe, secure and free from outside interference,” he said. He said.
Foreign misinformation campaigns are far from the only source of confusion and chaos since the US election. With Republicans winning Wednesday in their ongoing efforts to limit voting rights, concerns are running high about the removal of voters. In a decision Wednesday night, the Supreme Court allowed Alabama officials to block voting.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union and other ban challenges said crosside voting would help the state slow the spread of Kovid-19 and allow the most vulnerable people to vote safely .
The plaintiff in that case, Howard Porter Jr., is a black man in his 70s with asthma and Parkinson’s disease. “Many of me [ancestors] He also died to vote, ”he testified in the district court. “And while I don’t mind dying to vote, I think we’re ahead of it – we’re past that time.”
The Iowa Supreme Court also upheld a Republican-backed law that could have barred election officials from sending thousands of ballots, making it difficult for auditors to correct voter information with omitted information.
Agencies contributed to the reporting
