Top officials from China and Russia are disputing the findings released in newly unclassified documents that show U.S. intelligence officials believed they were interfering with American elections.
Read more Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Mistborn’ turns 20. What you need to know about the epic fantasy series
The responses come just hours after President Donald Trump on Thursday evening expressed concern about vulnerabilities in the country’s voting systems.
Citing newly declassified documents, Trump, in his televised speech, alleged that China participated in what he said is believed to be the “largest compromise of election data in history” starting in 2020.
While much of Trump’s speech focused on China looking to keep him out of office, the documents released show Russia, Iran and other nations had special interests in U.S. elections for differing reasons.
Speaking to the press Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the allegations are false and a “serious smear” that is “vilifying China.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the information was “anonymous” and said Russia had “no influence” in U.S. elections.
No evidence has been found in the documents that the interference from foreign countries changed or impacted U.S. elections to date, but the Trump administration is announcing changes to the state and local processes from here on out, essentially battening down the hatches and ensuring that it won’t happen in the future.
Here’s a breakdown of what the declassified documents said:
China, Russia and Iran efforts over the years
According to documents released from the CIA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Intelligence Council, several nations had their sights set on U.S. elections, voter rolls and technology over the course of the past several general elections.
The CIA said it was primarily concerned in an August 2020 report that there was an “ongoing and potential influence activity by Russia, China and Iran.”
The report said they believed Russia was using “a wide range of measures primarily to denigrate” Biden and his campaign because they viewed him as an “anti-Russia establishment.”
“For example, it is directing or encouraging proxies to spread claims about Vice President Biden. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media,” the 2020 report said.
The documents show that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials were overseeing efforts by their proxies to “spread claims” about Biden and his connections to Ukraine, including claiming he engaged in criminal activities related to Ukraine.
Russia was reportedly “conspiring to intensify” its efforts ahead of the election to “orchestrate a high-profile corruption scandal” that implicated Biden and the Democratic Party.
“Their aim is to defeat the former Vice President and ensure the President’s victory,” the CIA said in the 2020 report.
Additionally, some Russian actors began circulating narratives about voter fraud resulting from the large number of mail-in ballots cast during the COVID-19 pandemic and said the Democratic Party “rigged” some primary races that year. Trump did not mention the attacks on Biden’s campaign in his remarks.
Conversely, the CIA said that it assessed that China preferred Trump be defeated in his attempt to win a second term because in the past few months, China had “stepped up public rhetoric criticizing” the Trump administration.
“We assess that China prefers that the President — whom Beijing sees as unpredictable and tough on China — does not win reelection,” the documents said.
The assessment said China didn’t “intend to try to affect the election” but participated in online influencing campaigns by spreading “derogatory information” about some U.S. officials.
It was recommended to China to “collect derogatory ‘black materials’” on Trump and tasked its groups within the U.S. to incite protests that damage Trump’s public standing to impact his chances for reelection.
The early summer of 2020 was marked by racial divides and mass protests nationwide after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. China was seeking to capitalize on it, knowing that “racial conflict would be a large factor in the election.”
“China uses mostly enticements and occasionally coercion to extract more pro-China positions and to punish those whom Beijing views as opposed to China’s interest,” the National Intelligence Council said in a report.
The council said it believed China likely calculated that a concerted effort to influence the election would backfire and “offer uncertain benefit,” but also acknowledged that critical statements could tip the scales in the race.
China was looking at several areas where it could influence public opinion ahead of the election. According to a “sensitive government agency” that had been redacted from the document, U.S. intelligence believed China was looking to “exploit U.S. societal fissures and vulnerabilities.”
China particularly wanted to encourage “violent demonstrations” to make it look like societal unrest, undermine Trump’s supporters and intensify Americans’ disproval related to economic concerns. They also wanted to increase “public dissatisfaction” with the way Trump handled the pandemic.
Additionally, China wanted to capitalize on racial tensions that year by “inciting demonstrations and marches,” increasing the level of conflict between police and anti-racism activists and increase the narrative that U.S. law enforcement officers “resent” people of color. Other social areas targeted by China were women’s rights, disagreements over immigration and guns rights, and war and foreign policy.
Iran was working a social media campaign looking to “undermine the current President and US democratic institutions, and to divide the country” ahead of the general election.
The 2020 report found that Iran believes the Trump administration wanted regime change and so it was looking to keep him from having another term. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “probably” authorized the influence campaign online.
Read more Sen. Mike Lee says mail-in voting ‘should not survive much longer’ — with few exceptions
Khamenei was killed in February when the U.S. began its war with Iran. Trump has stated the military action wasn’t to change the regime, but instead it’s been a perk to have eliminated top Iranian leaders in their efforts to stop them from building a nuclear weapon.
Noncitizen voters, fraud allegations, leaks of voter rolls and safety of U.S. elections
Trump during his remarks Thursday evening stressed the importance of lawmakers passing the SAVE America Act.
It’s Republicans’ latest sweeping reform bill that is looking to establish proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements for federal elections.
It passed in the House already, but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. Trump said he won’t sign other bills until they approve the SAVE America Act.
“To all Americans, I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your representatives in the House and Senate, and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay,” Trump said Thursday.
The legislation has been championed by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who said in a statement to the Deseret News that it’s been “amazing” to see Trump embrace the legislation he introduced. Lee said “many Americans are shocked to discover (it’s) not already national policy.”
“The United States should not have a less secure voting system than Bulgaria or Bangladesh,” Lee said.
According to documents released by the Department of Homeland Security, national security investigations related to noncitizen voting and registration, more than 250,000 noncitizens are “illegally registered to vote in just the four states for which public data files have been reviewed.” The four states include California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. DHS said it has been notified of the “serious threat to national security.”
DHS said that 10 states have processed their full voter lists and they have identified more than 400,000 deceased registrants and more than 28,000 noncitizens. Each of the “proactive” states is lead by Republicans, the report showed and DHS noted the “unambiguous contrast between state leadership and non-citizens on voter rolls.”
Also included in the release of the declassified documents was information related to a debunked Michigan voter fraud investigation. Trump said in his remarks that the documents are evidence of “alleged fraud by a large-scale voter registration operation” during the 2020 election cycle.
The allegations were investigated both at the state level and by the FBI, with officials saying no illegal ballots were sent via mail or cast. Trump argued that under the Biden administration, no one involved in the case was prosecuted.
The Michigan Advance pointed out the case was closed after Trump took office for his second term, with the Detroit bureau of the FBI saying no further investigation was needed as all leads had been exhausted.
Still, Trump pointed to broader election security and the importance of election integrity as the countdown to the November midterm election is on.
He said that “every American, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent or otherwise, should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest, and fair election system anywhere in the world.”
Documents released Thursday show intelligence agencies believe systems designed to tabulate votes, transmit vote amounts or display election results “probably are vulnerable to localized exploitation,” but noted that it would be difficult to manipulate at scale.
Trump has long believed there was widespread corruption in the 2020 election that rigged or stole the race from him. Since the pandemic was still happening that November, Americans voted in historic numbers through mail-in ballots.
When results showed Biden won, Trump and some allies claimed there were issues with mail-in ballots, voting machines and foreign interference. But in the years since, state audits and recounts confirmed Biden won.
Trump said Thursday he wasn’t trying to weaken Americans’ trust in elections, but said they would be confronting vulnerabilities to the systems.
The 2020 report stated that hackers have “repeatedly demonstrated that some voting machines are easy to compromise.”
Additionally, the administration highlighted how China accessed voter roll information in 2022 in several states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma and Rhode Island.
In a letterhead dated July 13, the Trump administration announced declassified intelligence reveals that voter registration rolls from at least 18 states were compromised by China. Additionally, more than 200 million voter records were also compromised without state-specific affiliations. The letter said Trump is alerting congressional and state government leaders to the vulnerabilities.
“Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. Unclassified reports from the last decade reveal that Statewide Voter Registration Databases are attractive targets for foreign adversaries,” DHS said in its report.
DHS outlined that it’s important to tighten up security because foreign actors could have access to Americans’ names, date of birth, addresses, and sensitive information like driver’s license numbers and full or partial Social Security numbers. A bad actor could use that information, alter or delete it ahead of an election.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Friday that they would be requiring states to scrub their voter databases in the future.
“Voter registration databases are the foundation of our voting system. State and local election officials must prioritize system security and implement safeguards to prevent the exploitation of data that may have already been exposed,” DHS concluded. “Adopting modern security enhancements such as smart network monitoring and multi-factor authentication can limit the risks of fraud and election disruptions.”
Read more Opinion: Utah parents need help protecting kids from predators