FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Thursday that Russia has been engaging in “very active efforts’ to interfere in the upcoming presidential elections this November, primarily to damage Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
According to Wray, who testified before the House Homeland Security Committee, the Russians’ primary goal is to “denigrate” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and other anti-Russian establishments in the United States as well as sow “division and discord.” To achieve this, Wray said the Russians have been using social media, proxies, state media, and online journals.
This comes as Donald Trump and other campaign officials have been floating the theory that China is meddling in the election to get Joe Biden elected. It should be noted that while the Intel Community said both China and Iran would prefer that Donald Trump not be re-elected, they haven’t provided evidence to show that either country is meddling.
The same can’t be said for Russia. There is evidence that Russia is trying to get Donald Trump re-elected, much like that did in 2016. The FBI so far has seen no evidence that the Russians are targeting election infrastructure like voter databases, but “we have certainly seen very active, very active efforts by the Russians to interfere in our election in 2020”. Wray said.
Interference that Donald Trump and other administration officials continue to ignore even after the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee warned about the dangers Russia pose to our democracy in the findings of the committee’s bipartisan probe into Russian election interference last month.
“The threat is ongoing. My hope is that this report and the committee’s work will provide the American people with more insight into the threats facing our nation and the steps necessary to stop them,” then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr said.
In his testimony on Thursday, Wray also addressed Trump’s and Barr’s claim that ‘Antifa is a terrorist organization responsible for violence at protests. The FBI Director said it’s “more of an ideology or a movement than an organization”. And even though there has been violence by people who identify as Antifa, the movement does not appear to be part of a central organization, Politico reports.
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