The United States leveled fresh sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian groups that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said are involved in interfering in the 2020 election.
“For far too long, the Iranian regime has used its state propaganda machine to lie to the Iranian people and fan the flames of hatred against the United States. Iran has now deployed some of the same propaganda and media infrastructure in an attempt to undermine elections in the United States,” Pompeo said on Friday. “The five entities designated — the IRGC, the IRGC-Qods Force, Bayan Rasaneh Gostar Institute, Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union, and International Union of Virtual Media — have engaged directly or indirectly in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in, foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election or are owned or controlled by entities engaged in such activity.”
Pompeo said, “The whole of the U.S. government is using all the tools at our disposal to target those who attempt to interfere in our democratic process.” He also said the State Department was adding “several cyberactors to our terrorist watchlist” for their membership in the cyberoperations unit for the IRGC, a designated foreign terrorist organization, “which will effectively prevent those individuals and their families from traveling to the United States.”
“Through covert media operations, including targeted disinformation efforts directed at U.S. voters, the Iranian regime has demonstrated its intent is to undermine American elections,” the secretary of state said. “Over the past few months, Bayan Gostar, a front company for IRGC-QF propaganda efforts, has actively planned influence operations involving U.S. elections. IRTVU and IUVM appear to be propaganda arms of the Iranian regime that assisted in these efforts.”
Treasury Department sanctions will also specifically target the five Iranian groups “for their efforts to spread disinformation and undermine our elections,” Pompeo added.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray held a surprise press conference on Wednesday evening, warning that Russia and Iran gained access to U.S. voter registration information. President Trump’s spy chief said that the Iranians were using that data to send spoofed emails to harm the commander in chief.
The Treasury Department separately “designated” the five Iranian entities, arguing that “the Iranian regime has targeted the United States’ electoral process with brazen attempts to sow discord among the voting populace by spreading disinformation online and executing malign influence operations aimed at misleading U.S. voters.” The sanctions block all property under U.S. jurisdiction belonging to the sanctioned groups and generally prohibit anyone in the U.S. from doing business with them.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration “will continue to counter efforts from any foreign actor that threatens our electoral processes.”
Ratcliffe announced Wednesday that “we have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran and separately by Russia. This data can be used by foreign actors to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence in American democracy.” Wray stressed that voters should be confident that their votes would count and that the federal government would combat any foreign meddling.
Ratcliffe, who has overseen the nation’s 17 spy agencies since May, said Tehran was making specific use of the U.S. voter data to harm Trump but that the U.S. intelligence community has not yet seen similar deployment of the voter information by the Kremlin.
“We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump … Additionally, Iran is distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas. This video and other claims about allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true. These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries,” Ratcliffe said, adding, “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.”
Iranian government spokesman Alireza Miryousefi denied the U.S.’s meddling claims on Thursday. “These accusations are nothing more than another scenario to undermine voter confidence in the security of the U.S. election and are absurd. Iran has no interest in interfering in the U.S. election and no preference for the outcome,” he said.
The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that intimidating emails claiming to be from the right-wing Proud Boys group, but apparently from the Iranians, had been sent to hundreds of voters in numerous counties in Florida, seemingly targeting Democrats. The Washington Post reported that at least a few of the threatening emails were also sent to voters in Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. The emails said, in part, that “you will vote for Trump on Election Day, or we will come after you.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of many Democrats to criticize or question Ratcliffe’s statements on Iran, saying, “Russia is the villain here from what we have seen in the public domain. Iran is a bad actor but in no way equivalent.”
“The Iranians follow U.S. politics closely and saw the last debate where the Proud Boys were an issue and saw an opportunity here to manufacture blowback on Trump by creating a narrative that violent Trump supporters are sending out threatening emails,” a senior intelligence official told the Washington Examiner.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint alert on Thursday warning about Russian cyberactors.
Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released an intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden, including that Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach “is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine” Biden. The same statement also said China “prefers” that Trump not win reelection and is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020.” The counterintelligence official also said Iran “seeks to undermine” Trump’s presidency.
Amanda Schoch, the assistant DNI for strategic communications, told the Washington Examiner that “the IC has not changed our assessment on Iran’s intent.”
