Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
Thank you, Attorney General [Merrick B.] Garland and Deputy Attorney General [Lisa] Monaco, for bringing the task force together for this meeting.
I know this group is busy year-round working with our partners—especially our brothers and sisters in state and local law enforcement who are often the first line of defense in protecting election workers from violence and threats of violence. And, as we get closer and closer to Election Day, we’ll continue to step up our collective efforts to protect those charged with ensuring our elections run smoothly.
As I’ve said before, election workers—many of whom are volunteers, and all of whom are public servants—are the lifeblood of our elections, and we’re committed to ensuring that threats directed at election workers receive the swift and thorough response they deserve.
Of course, our commitment to protecting elections and Americans’ right to vote extends to an even broader array of threats—threats the FBI, as both a law enforcement and intelligence agency, will continue to work 24/7 to uncover and disrupt. That means aggressively combatting attempts by foreign adversaries to undermine confidence in U.S. elections, sow discord, and damage our democratic institutions.
The actions announced today focus on Russia, but Russia is by no means the only adversary we’ve seen try to meddle in our society and democratic processes. Just last month, for instance, the FBI—working with the broader [U.S.] Intelligence Community and CISA [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]—called out Iran for targeting and attempting to compromise former President [Donald] Trump’s campaign.
And we continue to keep a close eye on China’s efforts to denigrate down-ballot candidates it sees as a threat, and on their broader efforts to sow discord.
Whether it’s China, Iran, Russia, or some other country, attempts to meddle in our elections or destabilize our free and open society represent attacks on our democracy. And as long as foreign adversaries keep engaging in these hostile influence campaigns, they’re going to keep running into the FBI.
Today, we’re exposing two illegal Russian covert influence operations targeting the American public.
The first was run by RT, formerly known as “Russia Today.”
For years, the Russian government has used RT to seed and amplify their propaganda narratives around the world. And while RT America suspended its official operations in the U.S. in early 2022, our investigation revealed that, since at least last year, RT has used people living and working inside the U.S. to facilitate contracts with American media figures to create and disseminate Russian propaganda here.
The content was pitched as legitimate, independent news, when in fact, much of it was created in Russia by RT employees who work for the Russian government.
The second operation reveals even more malign activities by companies working under the direction and control of the Russian government—companies that created media websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.
Today’s announcement exposes those companies and their influence operations—operations that relied on AI [artificial-intelligence]-generated content, influencers, and paid social media advertisements to drive internet traffic to their sites and target Americans with disinformation.
As of noon today, we’ve seized those sites, rendered them inoperable, and made clear to the world what they are: Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society.
As the lead agency for investigating threats to U.S. elections, the FBI is focused on ensuring our laws are respected and enforced. And when we learn that adversaries overseas are trying to hide who they are and where their propaganda is coming from as part of campaigns to deliberately sow discord, we will continue do everything we can to expose their hidden hand and disrupt their efforts.
I’ll close by saying “thank you,” again, to everyone on the task force for the support you’re providing us, and for everything you’re doing to instill confidence in our elections and ensure they’re conducted in a way that’s safe, fair, and legitimate for the American people.
Thank you.