Kremlin attempting to meddle in U.S. elections, DOJ says

The U.S. Department of Justice will not tolerate authoritarian regimes trying to exploit American democracy, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday. He accused Russia, Iran, and China of trying to interfere in U.S. democracy by spreading misinformation and propaganda online. The DOJ willcontinue to disrupt foreign entities’ attempts to influence U.S. elections, Garland said.

Did Garland list any specific actions the DOJ was taking? Federal prosecutors are charging two employees of the Russian state-run media outlet RT, formerly known as Russia Today, Garland said. According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Kostiany Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva allegedly engaged in a nearly $10 million scheme to create fake news agencies in the United States following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The news outlets pushed Russian propaganda and disinformation about the war to twist public opinion in the Kremlin’s favor, Garland said.

Did the DOJ list any domestic threats to elections? Garland on Wednesday promised that the DOJ would hunt down and bring to justice any U.S. citizens who threaten election workers. He cited the recent prosecution of cases involving election officials. A candidate for the New Mexico state legislature pleaded guilty earlier this year to orchestrating several shootings targeting election officials in the state, Garland said. In another instance, an Arizona man received 3 1/2 years in prison for threatening to blow up an election worker, Garland added.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Muncy’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about Iran, Russia, and China’s attempts to interfere in U.S. Elections.