This article has been republished here with permission from The Associated Press. This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; however, it does not represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.
WASHINGTON (AP) – US intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to demigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden before the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, he said. the country of present-day intelligence Friday in the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference.
U.S. officials are also of the opinion that China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated her criticism of the White House, expanding her efforts to shape public policy in America and pushing political figures seen as opposed to the interests of Beijing.
William Evanina’s statement is believed to be the most pointed statement made by the U.S. intelligence community that linked the Kremlin to efforts to re-select Trump – a sensitive topic for a president who rejected intelligence bureau assessments that Russia made in 2016 tried to help.
It also links Moscow’s rejection of Biden to his role in shaping Obama administration policies that support Ukraine, a key US ally, and against Russian leader Vladimir Putin. That assertion is in conflict with the narrative advanced by Trump, who has made unsubstantiated claims that Biden’s actions in Ukraine were intended to help his son Hunter’s business interests.
Evanina’s statement, three months before the election, comes amid criticism from House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress that the intelligence community has withheld from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign interference in American politics. .
“The facts are cool,” Sen wrote. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., In an op-ed published Friday night in The Washington Post. “I believe that the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information must be classified immediately. ”
The latest intelligence assessment reflects not only concerns about Russia but also China and Iran, warning that hostile foreign actors may try to compromise election infrastructure, interfere with the voting process or cast doubt on voting results. Despite those efforts, officials see it as unlikely that anyone could have manipulated the voting results in any meaningful way, Evanina said.
“Many foreign actors have the preference for whoever wins the election, which they express through a variety of open and private statements; efforts for covert influence are rarer, ”said Evanina, director of the National Center for Services for Services. “We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia and Iran.”
Concerns about election interference are particularly acute after a wide variety of Russians intervened in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump through both the hacking of Democratic emails and a secret campaign on social media aimed at discord among To sow American voters. Trump has routinely opposed the idea of the Kremlin favoring him in 2016, but the intelligence assessment released Friday shows that unnamed Kremlin-linked actors are working again to boost his candidacy on social media and Russian television.
The White House responded to Friday’s news with a statement saying “the United States will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral process and will respond to vicious foreign threats directed at our democratic institutions.”
In a separate statement, the Trump campaign said it did not want or need foreign assistance and said China and Iran were against Trump because “he has held them accountable after years of coddling by politicians like Joe Biden.”
Tony Blinken, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, responded on Friday that Trump had “publicly and utterly invited, emboldened and even sought to force foreign interference in US elections. B Joe Biden, on the other hand, has led the fight against foreign interference for years. ”
Democrats in Congress who have attended recent classified briefings on the threat of election interference have raised alarm over what they have heard. They urged the US intelligence community to make public some of their concerns, in part to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Obama administration officials were seen as slow and over-conscious in their public discussion of active Russian measures in that year’s elections.
Pelosi and chairman of the Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, said in a statement Friday that they were “pleased that Mr. Evanina responded to our call to make additional details public about Russia’s malignant interference campaign.” But they also criticized him for calling Iran and China “equal threats to our democratic elections.”
Pelosi and Schiff called on the intelligence community to “release specific information that will allow voters to assess for themselves the respective threats of these foreign actors, and to distinguish and differentiate goals, current actions and capabilities of these actors.”
A bilingual congressional report released earlier this year by the House Intelligence Committee said the Obama administration was unwilling to address the interference and failed to respond effectively because officials were afraid to get caught up in a heavily politicized environment and undermining the elections.
When it comes to Russia this year, U.S. intelligence officials say it is working to “denigrate” Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russian “establishment” among his supporters, Evanina said. U.S. officials believe Moscow’s criticism of Biden follows when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine’s policies and his support of opposition to Putin in Russia.
The US statement called Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker who has been active in leveling out pending allegations of corruption against Biden and his son regarding Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company run by Hunter Biden. sat down. That attempt has led to the publication of leaked phone calls.
Democrats, including members of the Senate Intelligence Panel, have expressed concern that an ongoing Republican probe into Hunter Biden and his work in Ukraine would parallel Russian efforts and reinforce Russian disinformation. That research is led by sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Chairman of the Senate First Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He has denied crimes.
Although U.S. officials claim that China has its own preferences, the statement on Friday did not directly accuse Beijing of interfering in elections or taking action to support Biden.
Instead, the statement said, China considers Trump “unpredictable” and does not want to see him win re-election, Evanina said. China has expanded its influence efforts ahead of the November elections in an effort to shape US policy and push political figures it sees against Beijing. The Trump administration’s relationship with China has shown a fiercely more oppositional tone, including last month’s closure of the Beijing consulate in Houston and an executive order Thursday related to Chinese consumers of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat,
“While China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric has become increasingly critical in recent months over the administration’s current COVID-19 response, closure of the Houston Consulate in Houston and actions over others. problems, “Evanina wrote.
On Iran, the observation said Tehran is trying to undermine American democratic institutions like Trump and divide America before the elections.
“Iran’s efforts along these lines are likely to focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recycling anti-American content,” Evanina wrote. Tehran’s motivation to carry out such activities is driven, in part, by a perception that re-election of President Trump would result in a continuation of US pressure on Iran in an effort to promote regime change. . “
During a panel discussion later Friday at the DEF CON Hackers Convention, federal cybersecurity officials were asked which foreign threat they considered most serious. ‘I do not think I would say that one is smarter than the other per se. Sure, some of these opponents are a little more experienced, “said the National Security Agency’s chief of staff, David Imbordino.
“I could not agree more,” said Cynthia Kaiser, the FBI’s deputy investigator for national cyber threats. “If you ask me what the biggest threat is, it’s the kind of constant drumbeat or influence campaigns that will make people feel less confident in our (election) system.”
