US to accuse Russia of effort to influence 2024 election, CNN says

The United States plans to accuse Russia on Wednesday of a campaign to influence the 2024 presidential election using online platforms to target American voters with disinformation, according to CNN.

Russian state media network RT will be a focus of the announcement, CNN reported, citing six sources familiar with the matter.

The news comes just hours before Attorney General Merrick Garland is due to speak at a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment ahead of the election task force meeting.

A Russian lawmaker called the reported accusations “pure rubbish” and said Moscow does not think it matters whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris wins the November 5 election.

“The only winner of the US election is the US private military industrial complex,” State Duma deputy Maria Butina told Reuters.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Moscow has repeatedly said it has not meddled in the US election.

RT responded with ridicule. “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections,” the media outlet told Reuters.

The Justice Department has previously warned that Russia remains a threat to the presidential election. US officials have said Russia has not shifted its preference from previous American presidential elections, indicating Moscow favours Trump.

US intelligence assessments found that Moscow tried to help Trump in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Moscow has denied the allegations.

Lisa Monaco, the number two Justice Department official, said last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his proxies have adopted increasingly sophisticated techniques, targeting specific groups of voters and those in battleground states.

The Justice Department in July said it disrupted a Russian social media campaign with links to RT that covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages.

The FBI last month searched the homes of two Americans with ties to Russian state media, including former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter and Dimitri Simes, an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The US government has also accused Iran of attempting to influence the upcoming election through cyber operations against both the Trump and Harris campaigns. The Trump campaign has said Iran was behind the leak of internal campaign documents to US media outlets.

US intelligence agencies have assessed that China is not planning to intervene in the presidential race to favour one candidate. But Reuters reported on Tuesday that a social media operation linked to Beijing is impersonating US voters, denigrating US politicians and pushing divisive messages ahead of the election.