With fewer than 60 days until the Nov. 5 election, the U.S. intelligence community says foreign actors continue to ramp up election influence efforts, with Russia remaining the "most active threat" to this year's election.
An official with the Office of the National Director of Intelligence also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent comments indicating that he supports Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential matchup do not align with the country's actions.
"The [intelligence community] does not take Putin's public statements as representative of Russia's covert intentions. There are many examples over the past several years where Putin's public statements do not align with Russian actions. For example, his comments that he would not invade Ukraine," said the official.
The official added that Russia wants to amplify divisive rhetoric and influence electoral outcomes, which speak to Moscow's broader foreign policy goals of weakening the United States and undermining Washington's support for Ukraine. The intelligence community has been reiterating this for months in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
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This latest update from the intelligence community comes on the heels of an explosive indictment Wednesday from the Department of Justice that accused two Russian nationals of working with the Kremlin to spread propaganda online and exploit American voters. The allegations were made against two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT.
According to the indictment, the RT employees are accused of using fake personas and "foreign shell entities" to covertly pay a Tennessee-based content creation company nearly $10 million to share thousands of videos on social media that favor the Kremlin's agenda regarding things like the Ukraine war.
An ODNI official spoke about the Russian tactic of targeting online influencers and content-creators, and why this has become an important tool for them.
"These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans' views, compared to content with clear signs of foreign propaganda. So what we see them doing is, relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors' interests," the ODNI official said.
China and Iran round out the "Big Three" actors that are trying to influence U.S. elections — events that these foreign nations view as periods of vulnerability when they can exacerbate divisions in U.S. society.
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For its part, Iran is making "a greater effort than in the past" to influence this year's elections, though its tactics and approaches remain similar to previous cycles. Officials pointed to the recent hacking operation against former President Trump.
Interestingly, China is attempting to influence down-ballot races and not attempting to influence the presidential race, according to intelligence assessments.
An ODNI official told reporters that the government has not observed any foreign actors seeking to interfere in the 2024 elections, but they are careful to draw the distinction between influence and interference, with interference referencing a foreign actor's "efforts to degrade to degrade or disrupt the United States ability to hold an election."
A separate ODNI official spoke to the coordination efforts across federal agencies to secure elections, saying that the election security leads across agencies are meeting twice a week to review intelligence and evaluate whether defensive briefings are needed for targets of malign influence operations. The official added that they have offered briefings to the campaigns.
