Biden admin targets Russia over 2024 election disinformation efforts

The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the indictment of two employees of Russian state TV network RT for their alleged covert efforts to prop up a U.S. company used to publish thousands of videos that promoted Russia's interests.

"The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing."

For months, the Biden administration has been publicly warning of Russia's efforts to influence Americans through disinformation and propaganda to sow distrust in the election.

Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other senior officials announced the actions during a meeting with DOJ's Election Threats Task Force, which is responsible for investigating threats to election workers and other officials around the country.

CNN first reported news of the expected law enforcement actions.

Among the law enforcement actions expected to be announced by the Justice Department is the targeting of a Russian disinformation campaign referred to as "Doppelganger," according to newly unsealed court records.

The DOJ has seized 32 internet domains it says have been used by the Russian government and government-sponsored actors to allegedly engage in the Doppelganger influence campaign by spreading propaganda intended to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster support for pro-Russian policies and influence American voters.

An unsealed affidavit in support of the seizure states that since at least 2022 -- under direction of the Russian Presidential Administration -- three Russian companies have allegedly used the domains to impersonate legitimate news entities and media brands to spread the propaganda.

The affidavit cites detailed notes allegedly from strategy meetings held by the Russian company Social Design Agency (SDA), where sanctioned Russian politician Sergey Kiriyenko and other Russian officials discussed how they could use propaganda to influence Americans.

"Among the methods Doppelganger used to drive viewership to the ... media domains were the deployment of 'influencers' worldwide, paid social media advertisements (in some cases created using artificial intelligence tools), and the creation of fake social media profiles posing as U.S. (or other non-Russian) citizens to post comments on social media platforms with links to the cybersquatted domains, all of which attempted to trick viewers into believing they were being directed to a legitimate news media outlet's website," the affidavit states.

In some instances identified by investigators, the campaign involved deceptive links that would redirect readers to propaganda articles disguised as legitimate news outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN, but in reality were constructed by the SDA, according to the affidavit.

In order to widen distribution of the propaganda, the Doppelganger campaign allegedly created sham social media profiles posing as U.S. citizens who would publicly share the links across various social media platforms.

Investigators further found that the disinformation network "purchased numerous social media advertisements targeting U.S. politicians and relied on artificial intelligence to generate the content," according to the affidavit.