Biden administration announces major actions to tackle Russian efforts to influence 2024 election

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a broad series of actions to respond to a major Russian-backed effort to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, including unveiling criminal charges against Russian citizens, sanctions against 10 individuals and entities, and the seizure of 32 internet domains.

Three Russian companies, under the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, used fake profiles to promote false narratives on social media, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. Internal documents produced by one of the Russian companies show that one goal of the propaganda effort was to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump or whoever became the Republican presidential nominee, according to the FBI affidavit.

Separately, two employees of RT, the Russian state media network, were charged in a U.S. court with participating in a scheme that funneled nearly $10 million into creating and running a Tennessee-based shell company to produce online content designed to sow divisions among Americans, according to the Justice Department. The scheme targeted millions of American news consumers with what Attorney General Merrick Garland called “hidden messages from the Russian government.”

Taken together, these actions represent the Biden administration’s most significant public response yet to alleged Russian influence operations targeting American voters. After the U.S. accused Iran of attempting to hack the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns last month, Wednesday’s actions are a reminder that U.S. officials continue to view Russia as a significant threat to foreign influence over the November election, according to people familiar with the matter. .

One of the three Russian companies believed to be behind the internet domains seized by the Justice Department is a company called Social Design Agency (SDA), which the Treasury Department previously sanctioned for operating fake news websites in Europe on behalf of the Russian government.

CNN first reported the pending US measures on Wednesday. Four sources told CNN that the Russian disinformation operation was being whitewashed by both American and non-American voices.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, operates television and online platforms around the world that advance the Kremlin’s agenda. The Justice Department forced RT America to register as a foreign agent in 2017 after U.S. intelligence officials concluded that the outlet aided Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

Wednesday’s announcements represent the second major effort by the Biden administration to curtail RT’s influence in two months. In July, the Justice Department charged an RT employee with involvement in a scheme that used a network of about 1,000 social media accounts to pretend to be based in the United States and spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine and other topics. U.S. officials accuse the Kremlin of funding the project; a Kremlin spokesperson denied the allegation.

When asked for comment, an RT spokesperson did not respond to the substance of the claims, instead emailing sarcastic comments, including: “He called in 2016 and wants his shots back.”

CNN could not immediately reach the social design agency for comment.

A growing number of foreign agents have attempted to influence US elections since Russia’s 2016 activity, which included hacking the Democratic National Committee and leaking documents intended to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

In the 2024 election, Iran’s alleged adoption of similar hacking and leak evidence used by Russia in 2016 has put US officials on high alert. In June, a group of hackers linked to the Iranian government successfully targeted the Trump campaign, stealing internal campaign documents and sharing them with news organizations. CNN reported that hackers hacked the email account of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone to target campaign staff.

U.S. officials are also closely monitoring China, which U.S. officials and private experts say is also using a wide range of online accounts to target American voters. CNN previously reported that Chinese leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that China would not interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election when the two men met last November.

But any foreign or domestic attempts to sow discord in U.S. elections and shape voter opinion do not change the fact that the electoral process is extremely difficult to tamper with and protected by multiple layers of defenses. There is no evidence of successful efforts — foreign or domestic — to influence U.S. elections by changing the outcome of the vote.

An estimated 97% of registered voters in the 2024 U.S. election will cast ballots in a jurisdiction with a verified paper trail, increasing the transparency of voting, Jane Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said this week.

“Election infrastructure has never been more secure,” Easterly said.