Intel agencies find 'no evidence' of foreign control in election

The intelligence community says claims that one or more foreign governments “owned, directed or controlled election infrastructure used in the 2020” elections are “not credible.”

The Department of Justice said in a statement that it, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner.”

The DOJ said multiple claims “that one or more foreign governments” were involved in the election were investigated.

“These conclusions are part of a classified report to the president prepared by DOJ and DHS pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13848, ‘Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Influence in a United States Election’ (the EO), issued on Sept. 12, 2018. Although the 1(b) report notes that Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government-affiliated actors materially impacted the security of certain networks during the 2020 federal elections, the Departments found no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor manipulated election results or otherwise compromised the integrity of the 2020 federal elections.”

The DOJ said, “Broad Russian and Iranian campaigns targeting multiple critical infrastructure sectors did compromise the security of several networks that managed some election functions, but they did not materially affect the integrity of voter data, the ability to vote, the tabulation of votes, or the timely transmission of election results.

“Iranian claims that sought to undermine the public’s confidence in U.S. election infrastructure were false or inflated. We identified several incidents when Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government-affiliated actors materially impacted the security of networks associated with or pertaining to U.S. political organizations, candidates, and campaigns during 2020 federal elections,” it said.

“The IC—including the FBI and the IC elements of DHS—has previously assessed that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate election processes at scale without detection by intelligence collection, post-election audits, or physical and cyber security monitoring of voting systems across the country,” the DOJ found.

The published report was a “declassified overview” of the more detailed, classified document.

“The purpose of this report was solely to evaluate the impact of foreign government activity on the security or integrity of the covered infrastructure. It did not address the effect of foreign government activity on public perception or the behavior of any voters, nor did it address the impact of non-state foreign actors like cybercriminals,” the DOJ said.

“We have no evidence—not through intelligence collection on the foreign actors themselves, not through physical security and cybersecurity monitoring of voting systems across the country, not through post-election audits, and not through any other means—that a foreign government or other actors compromised election infrastructure to manipulate election results.”

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