Biden, DOJ accuse Russia of $10M election disinformation campaign

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department charged two Russian citizens with directing a $10 million campaign to influence the 2024 election through online platforms that flooded millions of Americans with disinformation, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday.

The complaint focused on RT, the Russian state media network dropped by American distributors after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company bankrolled a $10 million campaign through a Tennessee company to distribute Russian misinformation to U.S. social media influencers and encourage divisions in U.S. politics, Garland said.

The department also seized 32 internet domains that Russians used to distribute misinformation about the election under a program called "Doppelganger," Garland said. The domains were built to look like legitimate U.S. news organizations, but were instead filled with Russian propaganda that could be picked up and relayed through U.S. influencers.

“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda,” Garland said. “In the wake of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, RT’s editor in chief said the company had built ‘an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in Western audiences.'"

Garland said the influence campaigns have become more sophisticated through use of artificial intelligence and also faster and more prolific with improved technology.

“We’re just seeing more and more. It’s coming faster and faster," Garland said. “Therefore it’s a bigger threat than it ever was before."

To give a sense of the scope of the audience, the charging documents said the U.S. company posted 2,000 videos that got a combined 16 million views on YouTube. Two founders of the company had 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, respectively.

“The point is not the message itself, but the hidden hand of the Russian government," FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

More: Russia wants Trump back in White House. Iran doesn't. Let the election hacking begin.

RT responded with ridicule: "Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the U.S. elections," the media outlet told Reuters.

Garland responded that the government is taking the threats seriously.

“This is deadly serious and we are going to treat it accordingly,” Garland said.

Two Russia-based RT employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, known as Lena, were charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They remain at large.

"The department will not tolerate foreign efforts to illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

Other departments also took action against RT and Russian individuals.

The Treasury Department placed sanctions on 10 individuals, including RT's editor in chief, Margarita Simonovna Simonyan, and two entities as part of Moscow’s coordinated effort to recruit American influencers in their malign campaign.

The State Department adopted a new policy to restrict visas to people acting on behalf of Kremlin-supported media organizations, which the department said was to combat “nefarious, covert influence activities” rather than because of the content of what they reported.

The department also designated five Russian companies operating in the U.S. as foreign missions actively controlled by the Russian government, which will require them to name their employees and identify their real-estate holdings. The companies are Rossiya Segodnya, and subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik.

"This is the most comprehensive action we’ve seen to target and disrupt an effort by a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election," Brandon Van Grack, who served as a lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, told USA TODAY. "It is clearly intended to not just disrupt the interference, but also minimize the impact on the upcoming election."

Government officials have long warned that Russia would try to influence the elections, along with China and Iran.

The trend is not new.

Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller investigated interference in the 2016 election and charged Russians with hacking Democratic computers and releasing information about nominee Hillary Clinton.

“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” the Mueller report said.

While the intelligence community determined Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the influence campaign and developed a clear preference for a Trump presidency, Mueller’s investigation did not find the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.

“Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” the intelligence community report said. “We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”

In July 2016, Russian agents began targeting email associated with Clinton's personal office the same day that Trump talked about her email. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emailsthat are missing," Trump said.

In a speech last month, Monaco warned that Putin "and his proxies are using increasingly sophisticated techniques in their interference operations."

"They’re targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters in an effort to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcomes," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden, DOJ accuse Russia of $10M election disinformation campaign