The US intelligence community said in a landmark report Tuesday that the Russian government meddled in the 2020 election with an influence campaign “denigrating” President Joe Biden and “supporting” former President Donald Trump, detailing a massive disinformation push that successfully targeted, and was openly embraced, by Trump’s allies. Russia’s objectives were not limited to hurting Biden’s candidacy and aiding Trump’s reelection bid, the report says, as US intelligence found that Moscow also sought to undermine “public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate socio political divisions in the US.” Overall, the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provides the most comprehensive assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 elections to date, detailing extensive influence operations by US adversaries, including Russia and Iran, that sought to undermine confidence in the democratic process, in addition to targeting specific presidential candidates.
One technique used by Russia to attack Biden was the creation of false allegations which alleged Biden, while vice president, sought to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired on the basis he would not investigate his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, when his father was vice president. USA Today details the report specifically naming Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician, as acting on behalf of Putin to actively discredit Biden. It is further reported that during the presidential campaigns, Derkach met with Rudy Giuliani, who was then serving as Trump’s personal attorney as part of the influence campaign. The Trump administration sanctioned Derkach for his interferences.
The Intelligence report also determined that China did not try to chance the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and also reported that there are no indications that foreign actors attempted to alter ballots or vote tabulation. CNBC reports that Biden has been clear that the United States will respond to a number of destabilizing Russian actions, such as the SolarWinds hack, the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, and now the election interference. Moscow has previously denied any involvement in attempting to influence U.S. elections.
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