The Biden-Harris administration on Wednesday accused Russia of an effort to influence the 2024 presidential election, and announced charges against two Russians, among other actions.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced indictments against two Russia-based employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, charging them with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
“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.
Garland accused Russia of using RT to “direct disinformation and propaganda.” He said that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RT’s editor-in-chief had an “entire empire of covert projects” designed to shape public opinion in “Western audiences.”
He accused RT and its employees of implementing a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to “publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”
He said the defendants directed the company to contract with U.S.-based social media influencers to share that content on their platforms.
Garland said separately, the Justice Department will seize 32 internet domains that the Russian government and Russian sponsored actors have used to engage in “a covert campaign to interfere in and influence the outcome of our country’s elections.”
“An internal planning document created by the Kremlin states that a goal of the campaign is securing Russia’s preferred outcome in the election,” Garland said, without mentioning what the “preferred outcome” was.
He accused a Russian public relations company called the Social Design Agency of designed these domains to look like major news sites like the Washington Post or Fox News.
“But, in fact, they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and other in countries,” Garland said.
Garland spent much less time talking about Iran, who was allegedly behind a recent hack of the Trump campaign’s emails. Garland said on Iran:
As the U.S. Intelligence Community noted two weeks ago, we have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle. That includes recently reported activities by Iran to compromise former President Trump’s campaign and to avoid an election outcome that it regards as against its interests. Those recently reported Iranian activities also include efforts to obtain access to individuals who themselves have access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.
CNN first reported on the pending actions against Russia, after speaking with unnamed officials. Asked for a response, an RT spokesperson emailed CNN, “2016 called, and it wants its clichés back.”
This story has been updated.
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