Russia, Iran and China are all backing candidates in this year's election, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday, but America's adversaries disagree about who would best advance their interests.
The Kremlin wants to sway voters “in favor of former President Donald Trump” and “weakening the prospects” of Vice President Kamala Harris, while legal scholars in Tehran have indicated they would prefer the Democratic candidate over the Republican, according to an Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) official. Unclassified Briefing.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government doesn't seem to care much about who wins the White House, instead focusing on lower-tier races and targeting candidates it sees as a “threat” to its interests, they said.
Regardless of their respective preferences, the three countries have begun stepping up efforts to influence the election ahead of November 5th.
“Russia, Iran and China seek to exacerbate divisions in American society in any way for their own interests and view the election period as a vulnerable time,” the briefing summary said.
“These actors likely believe that amplifying controversial issues and divisive rhetoric serves their own interests by undermining the United States and its democratic institutions, distracting the U.S. government from domestic concerns and preventing it from countering hostile actions in other parts of the world,” the report said.
While there are no known attempts to actively interfere in the electoral process, all three governments have stepped up influence operations and promoted propaganda to “shape voter preferences.”
Russia remains the “most active foreign influence threat,” ODNI officials said, with state-run media outlets such as RT and other entities under U.S. sanctions pushing messages that “spread a pro-Russia narrative.”
The effort is “consistent with Moscow's broader foreign policy goals of weakening the United States and undermining Washington's support for Ukraine,” the official said.
There have also already been foreign efforts to “compromise political organizations” in the United States during this election, most notably Iranian operatives hacking data from the Trump campaign.
Tehran has targeted both the Trump and Harris campaigns, but its government has specifically targeted Trump, saying it is “smearing the former president,” the official said.
“U.S. intelligence agencies are observing efforts by Tehran to potentially influence the presidential election as Iran's leaders seek to avoid what they perceive as an escalating outcome,” an ODNI official said in July, suggesting Harris may be viewed as a more docile figure by the theocratic Islamic regime.
Like Russia, Iran has had success with having its actors publish fake news articles and create false profiles to spread its own propaganda.
Meanwhile, China plans to pursue the same policy in the 2022 midterm elections, continuing the theme of focusing on House and Senate elections.
Two years earlier, the FBI uncovered a major Chinese espionage operation implicating U.S. officials and several San Francisco-area Democrats, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).
Christine Fan (aka Fan Fan), a honey trap acting on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security, worked for multiple Democratic campaigns to lure members of Congress for access to highly sensitive U.S. intelligence information.
At least two Midwestern mayors have had sex with Chinese spies, but Swalwell declined to go into detail about his interactions with Fan.
At the same time, the People's Republic of China has engaged in “smaller efforts” to increase division in the United States on social media by promoting content related to the Israel-Hamas war, which is dividing the Democratic coalition.
ODNI officials said Friday that foreign influence campaigns against state and local government officials are occurring across the country.
The official also said he was aware that some foreign powers were considering openly lobbying politicians ahead of the election, but did not provide details about their plans.
The warning came after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was convicted in July of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar, and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was indicted in May on charges of accepting bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank.
His eldest son, Hunter Biden, avoided charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) despite evidence that he directly lobbied the U.S. Embassy in Italy to help a Ukrainian gas company secure a contract.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine counts of tax evasion on Thursday, more than a month and a half after his father, President Biden, dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
