Feds blame Russia, Iran for election misinformation and threatening emails

At a press conference on Wednesday evening, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told reporters that two foreign actors, Iran and Russia, have been identified as taking actions to interfere in the US elections. Ratcliffe claimed the two have obtained voter data (which the Florida Secretary of State notes is publicly available), and specifically blamed Iran for emails sent to Florida Democrats that claimed to be from “Proud Boys” and contained threats goading them to vote for Donald Trump.

Ratcliffe claimed this effort was an attempt to hurt Trump’s campaign, but did not specify how. The Washington Post reported that the right-wing Proud Boys group had been dropped by Google Cloud, and its domain was open to spoofing as a result.

His statements echoed an earlier note signed by intelligence leaders, which said that “We assess that Iran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray also appeared at the press conference, and said “We’re not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections or any criminal activity that threatens the sanctity of your vote or undermines public confidence in the outcome of the election. When we see indications of foreign interference or federal election crimes, we’re going to aggressively investigate and work with our partners, to quickly take appropriate action.”

“You should be confident that your vote counts...Early, unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.”