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Iran is said to be behind sending threatening emails to Democratic voters. US national security officials say the country, like Russia, has information about American voters.
A BBC report said the announcement came 13 days before the US presidential election.
John Ratcliffe, director of the US National Intelligence Agency, said the emails were shown to have been sent by a group of far-right Trump supporters. He commented that the emails were sent for the purpose of “inciting unrest.”
He said Iran had sent “fake emails” under the name of “Proud Boys,” a radical pro-Trump group. They were sent to intimidate voters, cause chaos and tarnish President Trump’s reputation.
He said that Russia, like Iran, had information on voters. Unlike Iran, no “similar actions by Russia” have been noted.
Previously, US authorities feared that foreign agencies could interfere with the voting process and spread false information about the elections to influence US elections.
The suspicious emails sent recently have been sent to Democratic voters in several states. In those emails, they were asked to vote for Trump.
The email threatened: ‘You will vote for Trump on Election Day, otherwise we will find you.’ Support the Republicans so we know you got our message. ‘
However, officials say Iran has so far failed to hack the US system successfully.
Intelligence officials did not provide details on how voter information was leaked or what Russian officials were doing with the information.
Christopher Ray, director of the FBI, told a news conference that the United States electoral system was still safe and stable.
Earlier, in the 2016 election, Kremlin-backed hackers tried to disrupt Hillary Clinton’s election campaign by carrying out cyberattacks and spreading false information on social media, according to US intelligence agencies.
As of Wednesday, 40 million Americans had voted before the presidential election.
