{"id":87536,"date":"2020-07-21T05:37:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=87536"},"modified":"2020-07-21T05:37:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:37:42","slug":"auto-draft-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/07\/21\/auto-draft-105\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Democrats Sound Alarm About Election Interference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – A key group of lawmakers is warning that the U.S. Congress may be the target of a campaign by foreign actors to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The warning from Democratic members of the so-called Gang of Eight, which includes the Speaker of the House, the Senate Minority Leader and the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, comes in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, demanding a briefing for all lawmakers by the end of the month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,\u201d the lawmakers wrote in the July 13 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter shares few other details but cites \u201cthe seriousness and specificity of these threats,\u201d as a reason for the urgent, classified briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FBI told VOA it received the letter but declined further comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which announced in May that it would lead \u201call intelligence-based threat briefings to candidates, campaigns and political organizations,\u201d also declined to comment on the concerns<\/p>\n

But a spokesperson noted that officials have continued to brief lawmakers on election security threats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether key Republican leaders in Congress supported the call for an urgent counterintelligence briefing. VOA requests to the top Republican lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees went unanswered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fears about efforts by U.S. adversaries, including Russia and China, trying to meddle in the U.S. presidential election in November are not new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement ahead of key primary elections this past March, multiple government agencies, including the FBI, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and ODNI warned that voters must \u201cremain aware that foreign actors continue to try to influence public sentiment and shape voter perceptions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More recently, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, said he was warned about Russian and Chinese efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from before \u2014 and I guarantee you I know now, because now I get briefings again \u2014 the Russians are still engaged in trying to delegitimize our electoral process,\u201d he told supporters during an online fundraiser last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added in a statement Monday that, if elected, his administration would respond to election interference by imposing \u201csubstantial and lasting costs on state perpetrators,\u201d with measures that include \u201cfinancial-sector sanctions, asset freezes, cyber responses, and the exposure of corruption.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Democrats have also raised concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ranking Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees sent a letter to their Republican counterparts last week asking for a briefing from the FBI\u2019s Foreign Influence Task Force and other relevant intelligence officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter<\/a>, which cited reporting by The Washington Post<\/em>, expressed concerns about pro-Russian Ukrainian operatives and material they may have offered the two committees in connection with an investigation into Biden\u2019s son, Hunter. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite such concerns, U.S. officials have sought to assure Americans that the vote itself will be secure when they head to the polls in a little less than three and a half months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve said it before and I’ll say it again \u2014 the 2020 election will be the most secure election in modern history,” Chris Krebs, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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US Officials Promising \u2018Most Secure Election in Modern History\u2019<\/div>\n
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The officials say while the November presidential election will not be risk free, defense and back-up systems should guarantee a free and fair result<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

He added that there\u00a0are\u00a0also no indications that Russia, China or anyone else is actively trying to interfere with U.S. election systems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not seeing that level of coordinated, determined cyberactivity,\u201d Krebs said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other top officials are promising that any interference from a potential cyberattack to a disinformation campaign will be met by a strong response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re going to act,” General\u00a0Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cybercommand, said during a webinar Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re going to act when we see adversaries attempting to interfere in our elections,\u201d he said. “Our No. 1 goal, our No. 1 objective at the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command \u2014 a safe, secure and legitimate 2020 election.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – A key group of lawmakers is warning that the U.S. Congress may be the target of a campaign by foreign actors to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.\u00a0 The warning from Democratic members of the so-called Gang of Eight, which includes the Speaker of the House, the Senate Minority Leader and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}