Russian groups and other foreign adversaries have unleashed an extensive disinformation campaign to undermine confidence in the election, and senior U.S. officials are worried that Moscow’s efforts could continue to stoke political discord until the election is certified in January.
On Monday night, just hours before an election that polls show is the most closely fought in decades, intelligence, law enforcement and election defense agencies released a statement stressing once more — and in strong terms — their concern.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the F.B.I. said in a joint statement that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”
In recent weeks, the intelligence agencies have dramatically stepped up their alerts. Two weeks ago, they warned of post-election violence. Over the last 10 days, they have now issued three warnings about Russian attempts to undermine faith in the election. And Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said her organization would give regular updates Tuesday to inform the public of threats to the election.
American intelligence agencies have warned about foreign influence operations before, timidly in 2016 and more forcefully in 2020, but never with the speed or frequency of the warnings delivered this fall.
The statement on Monday said Iran remained a “significant foreign influence threat” and noted Tehran’s efforts to compromise former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign, stealing and leaking information from staff members.
