Russia And Iran Spread Election Fraud Conspiracies – But Didn’t Try To Alter Results – Intel Report Finds
Topline
A U.S. intelligence report released Tuesday found no evidence foreign actors attempted to manipulate the results of the 2020 election as former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters claimed – but it did find that Iran and Russia boosted election fraud claims to “undermine public confidence” in elections.
FALL RIVER, MA – NOVEMBER 3: A voter signals his ballot vote in the 2020 Election at Calvary Temple … [+]
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Key Facts
The assessment, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, found “no indication” that foreign actors “attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process,” such as vote tabulation or mail-in ballots.
But, it said, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a broad influence operation focused on “denigrating” President Joe Biden and the Democratic party, supporting Trump and boosting Trump’s claims of widespread fraud.
This effort allegedly included using “proxies linked to Russian intelligence” to push narratives of election fraud, including “some close to former President Trump and his administration.”
On the flip side, the report found that Iran, which Trump has often railed against, launched its own influence operation to “undercut Trump’s reelection prospects” while also boosting fraud claims.
Other small scale actors such as Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba and Hezbollah are also alleged to have taken “some steps to attempt to influence the election,” while cybercriminals are said to have “disrupted some election preparations” for financial gain.
Surprising Fact
China, the report found, “did not view either outcome as being advantageous enough” to “risk getting caught meddling” and opted not to try to influence the outcome.
Contra
The Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Cyber concluded, contrary to the overarching findings of the intelligence community, that China “did take some steps to try to undermine former President Trump’s reelection,” the report adds.
Key Background
Trump and his attorneys pushed a wide array of unfounded allegations of election fraud in the aftermath of election day, even claiming without evidence that foreign countries manipulated results on electronic voting machines. Some Trump surrogates, like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, have continued to push those claims nearly two months after Biden’s inauguration.
Tangent
Other prominent propagators of these claims include ex-Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell – who are facing defamation suits from Dominion Voting Systems for their conspiracy theories – as well as Lin Wood, who is representing Powell in her case.
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