Like others who participated within the briefing, this particular person spoke on the situation of anonymity below floor guidelines set by the intelligence businesses.
Officers additionally famous that the U.S. authorities has not detected any overseas hacking, interference or tampering with election machines and web sites, although officers have seen efforts to “scan” such networks.
Russia stays a “distinguished menace” to U.S. elections, the senior ODNI official mentioned, noting Moscow’s “core curiosity” is “opposing candidates who wish to provide additional help to Kyiv” as Ukraine continues to withstand Russia within the almost-2½-year-old conflict. That had been President Biden till he dropped out of the race final week and endorsed Vice President Harris, who’s the seemingly Democratic nominee.
The Kremlin is utilizing primarily Russia-based business corporations to help its affect operations by creating pretend web sites designed to impersonate U.S. authorities and media organizations, the official mentioned, noting that two such corporations have already been sanctioned for his or her actions.
The official couldn’t say how efficient these operations by Russia and Iran have been at shaping American attitudes and conduct or fomenting discord, partially as a result of it will entail assessing American public opinion. The intelligence neighborhood is charged with monitoring and assessing the capabilities and actions of overseas actors, however not U.S. political processes or public opinion.
China most likely doesn’t plan to affect the presidential election, the official mentioned, although U.S. spy businesses are monitoring the chance that pro-Beijing actors may search to denigrate down-ballot candidates as they did in a handful of midterm races in 2022.
President Xi Jinping pledged to Biden at a summit in San Francisco in November that Beijing wouldn’t intrude within the election. “China’s being extra cautious and we anticipate that they’re involved about getting caught in the event that they’re meddling within the election and they don’t wish to danger additional damaging the bilateral relationship,” the official mentioned.
Iran depends on an unlimited internet of on-line personas and propaganda mills to unfold disinformation, and has notably been lively and exacerbating tensions with Israel over the Gaza battle, the official mentioned.
A few of Iran’s major affect operatives work below its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary group with intelligence and cyber personnel, which has a direct line to the nation’s supreme chief, the official famous.
Given the current Biden determination to exit the race, “it’s fairly early” to evaluate whether or not Iran will actively search to advertise Trump’s eventual opponent, the official mentioned. In 2020, Tehran sought to undercut Trump’s reelection prospects, however didn’t look like actively selling any rivals, the intelligence neighborhood concluded in a post-election evaluation.
“It’s additionally necessary to emphasize that the majority exercise we’re observing from Iran’s affect actors stays targeted on stoking chaos and divisions,” he mentioned.
In an election menace briefing earlier this month, ODNI officers mentioned Tehran had sought to benefit from ongoing protests over the conflict in Gaza. “Now we have noticed actors tied to Iran’s authorities posing as activists on-line, looking for to encourage protests, and even offering monetary assist to protesters,” Director of Nationwide Intelligence Avril Haines mentioned in a press release.
On Monday, the ODNI official mentioned the intelligence neighborhood has “no additional data” to recommend that Iran was “making an attempt to have interaction or assist the protesters.”
