US seizes Russian websites used in bid to influence 2024 election
The Biden administration on Wednesday condemned Russian efforts to influence the 2024 U.S. election as the Justice Department announced it seized 32 web domains the country has used for its covert campaigns.
The action also targeted two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a Russian state media outlet with content available in English, charging the duo with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment accuses the two of partnering with a conservative-leaning media company to help sow division in the U.S.
Collectively, the two actions are some of the strongest moves taken under the Biden White House to confront accelerating efforts by the Russian government the intelligence community has deemed “the predominant threat to U.S. elections.”
Deemed “Doppelganger,” the Russian effort employed a mix of creating sites with slightly different web addresses that mimic U.S. news outlets, including one appearing to be The Washington Post, and are plastered with pro-Russian narratives. It also created other media brands to funnel Russian content.
“As of noon today, we’ve seized those sites, rendered them inoperable, and made clear to the world what they are: Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said as Justice Department officials convened an Election Threats Task Force meeting.
“When we learn that adversaries overseas are trying to hide who they are and where their propaganda is coming from as part of campaigns to deliberately sow discord, we’re going to continue to do everything we can to expose their hidden hand and disrupt their efforts,” Wray added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that “President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle” directed the influence campaign with the broader goals of drumming up support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “securing Russia’s preferred outcome in the election.”
“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda,” Garland said.
While neither officials nor the filings unsealed Wednesday named Russia’s preferred candidate, supporting exhibits included make clear support for former President Trump’s candidacy.
A dual-language internal planning document titled “The Good Ol USA Project,” shared by the Justice Department, stresses embrace of ending the war in Ukraine in exchange for Russia securing territories.
While the names of political parties and candidates are redacted, it points to Trump’s stance of being less involved in world affairs and says “It makes sense for Russia to put maximum effort into ensuring” Republicans and Trump supporters “win over the US public opinion.”
The indictment brought against the two RT employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyev, alleges they led a $10 million scheme to push a Tennessee-based company and its two directors to conceal Russian involvement as they published content designed to “amplify domestic divisions” on topics like immigration and inflation.
RT on Wednesday released a number of options they mulled in response to the indictment because they “couldn’t decide on one.”
“1. Ha! 2. Hahahaha! 3. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” the company wrote.
“4. 2016 called and it wants its clichés back”
Garland briefly addressed the response saying, “I’m sure that was much funnier in the original Russian, but for us, it’s not funny. This is deadly serious, and we are going to treat it accordingly.”
In carrying out the influence campaign, the company contacted social media influencers unaware of the Russian connection, and some 2,000 videos pushed out by the effort garnered 16 million views on YouTube alone.
The indictment does not list the company RT used by name, but it appears to be Tenet Media, which describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” – the same description used in the indictment.
The indictment alleges that the founders of Tenet Media were aware of the Russian ties, and accues the the company of “deceiving” the two personalities it hired. Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool are among those listed as talent on the company’s site.
Johnson seemed to confirm he was among those approached by Tenet.
“A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise,” he wrote on X.
Tenet Media, which is owned by BlazeTV and Turning Points USA contributor Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Pool on X addressed speculation he may have been involved, writing that “should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.”
“The show is produced in its entirety by our local team without input from anyone external to the company,” he said, including derogatory remarks about Putin.
The State Department is also taking action against RT, designating it under the Foreign Missions Act which will require it to disclose to the U.S. government all its personnel working in the U.S. It also offered an up to $10 million reward for those with information on Russian hacking efforts.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) identified Russian influence efforts as recently as July, writing in a report issued 100 days before the election that Moscow had already “directly and discreetly engaged Americans.”
“Moscow continues to use a broad stable of influence actors and tactics and is working to better hide its hand, enhance its reach, and create content that resonates more with U.S. audiences. These actors are seeking to back a presidential candidate in addition to influencing congressional electoral outcomes, undermine public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbate sociopolitical divisions,” ODNI concluded.
Intelligence agencies also assessed earlier this year that Iran was behind the hacking of Trump campaign emails, noting the country likewise attempted to breach Democratic campaigns.
Elsewhere in the planning documents Russia lays bare its support for Trump as well as who it believes it can influence.
Evidently written during the primaries, the documents stress the need to back Trump or any other Republican over a Democrat, tanking President Biden’s overall confidence rating, and increasing the percentage of Americans seeking an end to the war with Ukraine even if concessions included ceding territory to Russia.
The target audiences, they write, are Latinos, “American Jews,” and the “community of American gamers,” a group they said include Reddit and 4chan users, describing them as “the ‘backbone’ of the right wing trends” online in the U.S.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Garland called the operations an advancement of long-standing Russian efforts to influence U.S. elections, including using artificial intelligence, or AI, to ramp up existing practices.
“It’s an acceleration of and it’s an increased sophistication of its use of AI and cyber techniques that were not available in earlier elections. So we’re just seeing more and more. It’s coming faster and faster. It’s now AI-fueled. They’re now using bot farms in a way that was not possible before,” Garland said.
“And therefore it’s a bigger threat than it ever was before.”
Updated at 6:05 p.m.
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