Russia & Iran Interfering in Election Against Trump, According to DNI Chief Ratcliffe

Here are more details from our friends over at Fox News:

Russia and Iran are attempting to influence the 2020 elections and have obtained some voter registration information, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said at an FBI press conference on Wednesday.

Ratcliffe noted that both nations had taken specific actions to influence voters' opinions. He noted that the registration information they obtained could be used to confuse voters through false communication. 

The Iranian interference that's been discovered, Ratcliffe said, has been designed to incite social unrest and damage the president.

"This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence in American democracy," he said. "To that end, we have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump. You may have seen some reporting on this in the last 24 hours or you may have even been one of the recipients of those emails."

He added that Iran was distributing a video with false information about fraudulent ballots.

"Iran is distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas. This video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true," he said.

"These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries. Even if the adversaries pursue further attempts to intimidate or attempt to undermine voter confidence, know that our election systems are resilient and you can be confident your votes are secure. Although we have not seen the same actions from Russia, we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016. Rest assured that we are prepared for the possibility of actions by those hostile to democracy." 

Noting that his agency was responsible for investigating election crimes, FBI Director Christopher Wray vowed to take action in order to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections. He said that Americans should be "confident" that their votes count.

"We are not going to let our guard down," he added.

The news conference was held as Democratic voters in at least four battleground states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, have received threatening emails, falsely purporting to be from the far-right group Proud Boys, that warned “we will come after you” if the recipients didn’t vote for President Donald Trump.

Just like everything else running counter-narrative to the DNC, Fake News is already looking to cast doubt on the findings, which support fact that foreign actors, including Russia, have actively participated against Donald Trump since 2016. 

Now the focus is on discrediting Director of National Intelligence, Dan Ratcliffe. 

From Fake News CNN:

Ratcliffe did not explain what he meant by his statement that the emails -- which were sent to registered voters from "info@proudboys.com" and warned recipients to "Vote for Trump or else!" -- were intended to damage the President.
                                                                                                            Democrats and a group of former intelligence officials have accused Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman tapped to lead the intelligence community this year, of selectively declassifying intelligence in the run-up to the election to help Trump's campaign, and Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee criticized him after the press conference.
                                                                                                                         "DO NOT listen to Ratcliffe. Partisan hack," the committee's Twitter account said Wednesday evening.
                                                                                                                              A source in a Florida election office told CNN that during an FBI briefing Wednesday, agents told them the Proud Boy email threats about voting for Trump came from a nation state -- and they are seeing them across the country. The source said the agents told them these emails "were not the work of a Florida guy in his basement."
                                                                                                                     Russia has not taken the same actions, Ratcliffe said, but has obtained some voter information, just as Moscow did in 2016."

Partisan Hack?

These are the same people who lied about Russia for years. 

Christopher Wray is the same guy who called rioting ANTIFA thugs as, an "idea."

He did not seem to have any contradicting information to offer, btw, so why would we doubt Ratcliffe. 

CNBCcovered part of his remarks:

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who spoke after Ratcliffe at the press conference, said, “We are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections or any criminal activity that threatens the sanctity of your vote or undermines public confidence in the outcome of the election.”

“You should be confident that your vote counts,” Wray said. “Early, unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.”

A White House official said that the White House was briefed on the findings by the FBI and Ratcliffe’s office.

“Since the beginning of the administration, President Trump has directed law enforcement, defense and intel agencies to monitor and thwart any attempts to interfere in our election,” the official said. “This shows the efforts of our great law enforcement are working.”