Iran using covert influence campaign to undermine Trump candidacy, US intelligence says
Cars drive past a wall covered by a banner in the colours of the national flag in Tehran
(CNN) — Iran is using covert social media activity and related influence operations in an effort to undercut the candidacy of former President Donald Trump, a US intelligence official said Monday in an updated assessment of threats to the November election.
The US intelligence community has “observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election, probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a statement.
The recent Iranian influence activity has come in the form of “covert social media accounts and related activity,” the official from ODNI said at a media briefing when CNN asked for examples of the activity.
Iran’s preference for a US presidential candidate has not changed since 2020, the ODNI official said. In the 2020 election campaign, Iran “carried out a multi-pronged covert influence campaign intended to undercut former President Trump’s reelection prospects,” according to a declassified US intelligence report.
Russia’s preferences for the presidential race also haven’t shifted since 2020, when Moscow conducted a range of influence operations in support of Trump and aimed at denigrating Joe Biden, the ODNI official said.
“Iran does not engage in any objectives or activities intended to influence the U.S. election,” the Iranian Permanent Mission to the United Nations said in a statement to CNN. “A significant portion of such accusations are characterized by psychological operations designed to artificially pep up election campaigns.”
As president, Trump ordered the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, and withdrew from a multilateral deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran has vowed revenge for Soleimani’s death.
The alleged Iranian threats to the Trump candidacy have not just been online.
US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, CNN first reported on July 16. There’s no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, was connected to the Iranian plot.
Iran has denied the assassination plot allegations.
Foreign influence actors have used the attempted assassination of Trump “as part of their narratives, portraying the event to fit their broader goals,” the ODNI official said without offering examples.
Iran is also attempting to covertly stoke protests in the US related to the Israel-Hamas conflict by posing as activists online and in some cases providing financial support to protesters, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said this month.
“Tehran relies on vast webs of online personas and propaganda mills to spread disinformation and have notably been active in exacerbating tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict,” the ODNI said in its statement on Monday.
Russia is the ‘predominant threat’ to US elections
The updated intelligence assessment covers a range of covert and overt influence activity, showing that the number of foreign actors targeting US elections has continued to grow since the Kremlin’s sweeping effort to influence the 2016 election.
“Russia remains the predominant threat to U.S. elections,” ODNI said in its assessment on Monday. Moscow is using Russia-based “influence-for-hire” firms that are getting better at tailoring content to American audiences, US officials said.
CNN has requested comment from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. The Russian government regularly denies US allegations of election influence.
China “probably does not plan to influence the outcome” of the US presidential election, but US intelligence is monitoring the possibility that China-linked propagandists and influence actors could “denigrate down-ballot candidates,” the updated assessment says.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Biden that China would not interfere in the 2024 US presidential election when the two men met in November, CNN previously reported.
The-CNN-Wire
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