By Elishya Perera
WASHINGTON (CWBN)_ The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced yesterday (Oct 21), that Iran and Russia have obtained voter registration information, and that Iran is responsible for sending threatening emails and disinformation about voter fraud to Democratic voters.
A few days ago, several registered voters in the US reported receiving threatening emails from “info@officialproudboys.com”, that said, “Vote for Trump or else…”. During the news conference held yesterday, Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe said that Iran was responsible for the email campaign, posing as the far-right group, Proud Boys.
“We have already seen Iran sending spoof emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump,” Ratcliffe added.
Radcliffe, a former Republican congressman, has been accused of selectively declassifying intelligence in the run-up to the election to help Trump’s campaign, and was criticised by Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee following the news conference.
“TO CLARIFY: These election interference operations are clearly not meant to harm President Trump,” the committee’s Twitter account said, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, observed, “I had the strong impression it was much rather to undermine confidence in elections and not aimed at any particular figure and I’m surprised that DNI Ratcliffe said that at his press conference if he did”.
Ratcliffe also said US officials found Iran and Russia have obtained “some voter registration information”. This data could be used in attempts to “communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will sow confusion chaos and undermine your confidence in American democracy,” he claimed.
However, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in many states, voter data is available upon request, though each state has different requirements on who can request voter information, what data is available and how this data might be used.
During the 2016 election, US intelligence agencies concluded that Kremlin-backed hackers were responsible for an effort to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, using both cyber attacks and fake news stories planted on social media.
Nonetheless, Ratcliffe did not inform how Iran and Russia obtained the information and how widespread the emails have been.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
