FBI says Russia and Iran are attempting to influence the US election by obtaining American voters’ details

Iran is responsible for emails meant to intimidate American voters and sow unrest in multiple states, while Tehran and Moscow also obtained voter registration with the goal of interfering in the presidential election, US officials said at a rare news conference on Wednesday night – just two weeks before the vote.

The United States’ director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, announced that Iran specifically sent “spoofed” emails to Americans “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump”.

He said Iran had also distributed a video that implied that people could send in fraudulent ballots, including from outside the United States.

Mr Ratcliffe said both Iran and Russia seek to use information obtained “to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine confidence in American democracy”.

“These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries,” he said.

The announcement came after registered Democratic voters reported receiving personally addressed emails in the name of the Proud Boys armed militia group.

“You will vote for Trump on election day or we will come after you,” the emails said.

The voter-intimidation operation apparently used email addresses obtained from state voter registration lists, which include party affiliation and home addresses and can include email addresses and phone numbers.

Those addresses were then used in an apparently widespread targeted spamming operation.

The senders claimed they would know which candidate the recipient was voting for in the November 3 election, for which early voting is ongoing.

Mr Ratcliffe and US Federal Bureau of Investigation director Chris Wray said the US would impose costs on any foreign countries interfering in the 2020 US election.

Despite the Iranian and Russian actions, they said Americans could be confident that their vote would be counted.

Mr Ratcliffe and Mr Wray did not explain how the Russians and Iranians had obtained the voter information, or how the Russians might be using it.

Mr Wray stressed that US election systems remained safe and “resilient”.

“Rest assured that we are prepared for the possibility of actions by those hostile to democracy,” Mr Ratcliffe said.

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