WASHINGTON − Russia is ramping up its election interference efforts as Election Day nears, working specifically to help Donald Trump defeat Kamala Harris, using more sophisticated techniques including unwitting and even “witting” Americans – and trying to sway down-ballot elections as well, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.
Senior officials heading the U.S. efforts to combat interference by Russia, Iran, China and other foreign adversaries provided those details in a 75-minute briefing with reporters.
The officials, speaking on background to discuss classified matters, said they could not comment on specifics including which Americans, if any, might be under criminal investigation, or what constitutes the kind of “witting” accomplices the Kremlin is using to help the former president defeat Vice President Harris, his Democratic rival.
The briefing marked one of the first times, if not the first, that U.S. intelligence officials have explicitly said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to get Trump elected in the current election cycle after allegedly backing him in 2016 and 2020.
Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded that “Putin endorsed Kamala Harris,” a reference to a joking comment the Russian president made Thursday in which he claimed to favor the vice president.
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