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 sociopolitical divisions in the US."
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 sociopolitical 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.
It also confirms what was largely assumed, and barely hidden, last year: Trump and his closest allies publicly embraced Russia's disinformation campaign against Biden, met with Kremlin-linked figures who were part of the effort, and promoted their conspiracy theories.
The report said the most aggressive foreign attempt to "undercut" Trump came from Iran, but Iran didn't "actively" promote Biden, and their efforts were smaller than the Russian operation.
But while the report concludes that multiple foreign adversaries did attempt to interfere, it also notes there are "no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results."
That echoes what the Department of Homeland Security's cyber arm said the day after the 2020 presidential election. "We have no evidence any foreign adversary was capable of preventing Americans from voting or changing vote tallies," CISA said at the time.
The Biden administration is expected to announce sanctions related to election interference as soon as next week, three US State Department officials told CNN. The officials did not disclose any details related to the expected sanctions but said that they will target multiple countries including Russia, China and Iran.
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