A recently unsealed FBI affidavit revealed that Russian websites have been spreading disinformation about the 2024 election, aligning their propaganda with GOP’s false narratives about migrants voting, Talking Points Memo reported.
In April, back when Joe Biden was still running for re-election, an article purportedly from "The Washington Post” claimed that the president “needs migrants” to win the 2024 election. It falsely claimed that the Democratic Party had “smuggled over 320,000 illegals by plane through several airports last year," echoing charges made by former President Donald Trump and his allies. “The Democrats are determined to win elections at any cost so they can continue to fuel wars around the world. Therefore, they promote uncontrolled illegal migration in every possible way,” the article read.
But the article was Russian propaganda, posted on a website that mimicked the appearance of The Washington Post, complete with a real Post journalist's name in the byline. The article featured made-up quotes that could be found nowhere else online, according to Talking Points Memo, which reviewed an archived version of the fake site.
The story was posted on “washingtonpost.pm,” a web domain that the Justice Department determined is linked to a “Russian government directed” influence campaign called “Doppleganger.” An FBI affidavit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, flagged the spoof Post site as just one of 32 domains that the U.S. government identified as part of a Kremlin propaganda initiative. All the sites have been take down.
“The propaganda did not identify, and in fact purposefully obfuscated, the Russian government or its agents as the source of the content,” read the press release released by the Justice Department announcing the domain seizure. “The perpetrators extensively utilized ‘cybersquatted’ domains, a method of registering a domain intended to mimic another person or company’s website … to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate news media organizations.”
In addition to the fake news story, the Russian propaganda campaign also spread claims by Stephen Miller, a former Trump aide who has spread false claims about immigrants and U.S. elections, Talking Points Memo reported.
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