On Tuesday, March 16, U.S. National Intelligence Council published the report on Foreign threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections.
The document concluded that there are no indications that foreign actors attempted to alter U.S. ballots or vote tabulation. However, the report assessed that “Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US”.
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. The report has also confirmed what was largely assumed, and barely hidden, last year: Trump's close 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.
In particular, the report concluded that Vladimir Putin "had purview over the activities" of Andrii Derkach, who had met with Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani when the latter collected dirt on the Biden family in Ukraine.
Unlike in 2016, the intelligence community “did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure”.
“We have high confidence in our assessment; Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin's interests worked to affect US public perceptions in a consistent manner. A key clement of Moscow's strategy this election cycle was its use of proxies linked to Russian intelligence to push influence narratives-including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden-to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration,” the report stated.
Iran, at the same time, concucted a “covert influence campaign intended to undercut” Trump’s reelection bid without directly promoting his altenative candidates, aiming to “undermine public confidence in the election process” and "sow division and exacerbate societal tensions” in the country.
According to CNN, the Biden administration is expected to announce sanctions related to election interference as soon as next week, three US State Department officials said. The officials did not disclose any details related to the expected designations but said that they woukd target multiple countries, including Russia and Iran.
"The Minister of Finance, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Prosecutor General and the Secretary of the Interior, will impose appropriate sanctions for actions that have been defined as foreign interference in the U.S. elections," the document said.
Among other actors who took some steps to attempt to influence the election were Lebanese Hizballah, Cuba and Venezuela.