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WASHINGTON: US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday (October 21) that Russia and Iran have tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections.
Ratcliffe made the announcements at a hastily organized press conference that also included FBI Director Chris Wray.
The announcement two weeks before the election showed the level of alarm among top US officials that foreign actors were seeking to undermine American confidence in the integrity of the vote and spread misinformation in an attempt to influence its outcome.
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“We have confirmed that Iran has obtained certain voter registration information and, separately, Russia,” Ratcliffe said during the press conference.
Most of that voter registration is public. But Ratcliffe said government officials “have already seen Iran sending bogus emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and harm President Trump.”
Ratcliffe was referring to the emails sent Wednesday and designed to look like they came from the pro-Trump Proud Boys group, according to government sources.
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US intelligence agencies previously warned that Iran could interfere to harm Trump and that Russia was trying to help him in the elections.
Outside experts said that if Ratcliffe was right, Iran would be trying to make Trump look bad by drawing attention to support and threats from the sometimes violent group.
The emails are under investigation and an intelligence source said it was not yet clear who was behind them.
Another government source said US officials are investigating whether people in Iran had hacked into a Proud Boys network or website to distribute threatening materials. This source said that US officials suspect the Iranian government was involved, but that the evidence remains inconclusive.
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Some of those emails also contained a video, discredited by experts, purporting to show how fake ballots could be sent. Ratcliffe said that claim was false.
The second government source said that US authorities have evidence that Russia and Iran had attempted to hack electoral roll data in unidentified states.
But the source added that because much of the voter data is commercially available, the hacking may have been aimed at preventing payment.
