With just hours left to Election Day, it’s a neck-and-neck race to the finish., Politics,
Russia ‘manufactured and amplified’ video claiming election fraud in Arizona: Officials
The intelligence community is yet again sounding the alarm on a Russian “manufactured and amplified” video claiming election fraud in Arizona — and warned that the activity from Russia will likely focus on battleground states.
“Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the FBI, ODNI and CISA said in a statement Monday night.
“The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states,” officials added in the statement.
Russia, according to the intelligence community, is the “most active threat” in the election.
“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” the statement continued.
“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” officials said in the statement.
Content with the hallmark of a Russian influence operation includes a video claiming election fraud in Arizona and an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.
CISA said to seek out trusted sources of information — the election officials themselves.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
