FBI's Wray: Russia using 'drumbeat of misinformation' to undermine Biden campaign

By Mark Hosenball

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee during a hearing about 'worldwide threats to the homeland' on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 17, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans' confidence in the election process.

 

Moscow is also attempting to undercut what it sees as an anti-Russian U.S. establishment, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Democratic-led House of Representatives' Homeland Security committee.

 

He said his biggest concern is a "steady drumbeat of misinformation" that he said he feared could undermine confidence in the result of the 2020 election.

 

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans' confidence in the election process.

 

Wray's testimony follows an Aug. 7 warning by the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center that Russia, China and Iran were all trying to interfere in the Nov. 3 election.

 

Multiple reviews by U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia acted to boost now-President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and undermine his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The Republican president has long bristled at that finding, which Russia denies.

 

Trump himself has repeatedly and without evidence questioned the increased use of mail-in ballots, a long established method of voting in the United States which are expected to see a surge in use due to the coronavirus. On Thursday Trump wrote on Twitter, without evidence, that they could make it impossible to know the election's true outcome.

 

Regarding China, Wray said that the FBI is so active in monitoring Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. technology and other sensitive information that it is opening a new counterintelligence investigation related to China "every 10 hours."

 

Wray said the FBI is conducting multiple investigations into violent domestic extremists following months of street protests against racism and police brutality. He said the largest "chunk" of investigations were into white supremacist groups.

 

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Scott Malone, Marguerita Choy and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-18

 

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Thank you director Wray for calling it as the facts dictate that is what is expected from an agency tasked to find and bring to justice extremists of ALL stripes I’m expecting trump to fire this guy because he dident say what trump wants meanwhile trump and his minions continue to push the kremlin line just unbelievable 

3 minutes ago, webfact said:

Trump himself has repeatedly and without evidence questioned the increased use of mail-in ballots, a long established method of voting in the United States which are expected to see a surge in use due to the coronavirus. On Thursday Trump wrote on Twitter, without evidence, that they could make it impossible to know the election's true outcome.

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

4 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

Good to see you have friends, very important friends even who know the Russian foreign policy better than US intelligence.

Just now, TopDeadSenter said:

with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots.

 

Ah ha, the latest in a line to keep that drumbeat of misinformation percolating. Thanks for the heads up on the latest lies that Republicans and FOX are pushing. 

58 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

The Paterson election was municipal and didn't have the safeguards that a statewide poll would. Despite which the plot was uncovered.

It's not real convincing to cite unnamed and presumably private citizens. Typically what happens with Trump is he tries a gambit and says something supportive of Putin and/or Russia. Then when an outcry arises he beats an ambiguous retreat. To date, has Trump ever said anything negative at all about Vladimir Putin? How do his comments compare to those about leaders in Western Europe?

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Regarding China, Wray said that the FBI is so active in monitoring Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. technology and other sensitive information that it is opening a new counterintelligence investigation related to China "every 10 hours."

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Wray's testimony follows an Aug. 7 warning by the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center that Russia, China and Iran were all trying to interfere in the Nov. 3 election.

 

"The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our economic security—and by extension, to our national security".

https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states

 

biden is doing such a great job undermining himself with Americans,what a sad old sod ! Meanwhile  Mr. Trump is hell bent on the real threat,China!

 

"Yet, Biden mentioned none of those security, environmental and human rights matters in his speech accepting his party’s nomination. Nor did he talk about the effects of China’s malign behavior closer to home: its extensive efforts to infiltrate and subvert major American educational, scientific and governmental institutions and telecommunications systems, and to interfere in the U.S. election (which  China wants Biden to win, according to U.S. intelligence)".  

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/513392-where-does-biden-stand-on-china-and-taiwan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by riclag

The "drumbeat" of misinformation is coming from Wray himself...he did not site even one example of the info to help Trump get reelected. 

 

Wray has stonewalled the investigations into FBI wrong doing against the Trump campaign and then as President...

 

One more swamp rat that needs to be eradicate...

19 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

The "drumbeat" of misinformation is coming from Wray himself...he did not site even one example of the info to help Trump get reelected. 

 

Wray has stonewalled the investigations into FBI wrong doing against the Trump campaign and then as President...

 

One more swamp rat that needs to be eradicate...

Good god man,how many times does he have to say it ! Wray seems to be screaming out to America in his comment below

"The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our economic security—and by extension, to our national security".

https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by riclag

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

Russian friends tell you? American friends tell me Trump is a lying narcissist that hides his taxes. They also say Trump has sided with Putin in front of the whole world against American intelligence agencies when it comes to election tampering...my American friends say it was painful. They tell me they want Donald Trump out of office because he has the integrity of a raccoon. 

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by Tie Dye Samurai

If the Russians are supporting your candidate then you really know he is not good for the country. Wonder why those Trump lovers dont see that.

Troll post removed. 

 

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Good god man,how many times does he have to say it ! Wray seems to be screaming out to America in his comment below

"The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our economic security—and by extension, to our national security".

https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states

Because the Chinese constitute one threat, that means there can't be another? 

On the record facts:

 

The Republicans blocked legislation to protect the US elections from foreign interference.

 

Trump’s administration defunded US Government agency programs that are tasked with defending the elections against foreign interference.

 

Trump’s long record of defending Putin.

 

 

And a glaringly obvious logical fallacy:

 

If Russia and China are a threat, there is no reason at all why the President, the Administration and the power of US Government cannot combat both Russia an China.

 

Unless of course pointing at China is a deflection from dealing with Russia.

 

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

A couple more ‘Town Halls’ like the last one should swing it.

I’m watching joes right now what a difference 

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump

trump is without doubt an 'outsider' with his attacks on US government institutions, including political appointees who have zero credentials to run such institutions. trump himself is an excellent example of the Washington 'swamp' by removing those with oversight responsibilities, undermining domestic and global Rule of law, legislation enabling the 1%, continuing executive corruption with efforts to disfranchise voters etc etc etc.

Which is why trump is doing absolutely nothing to stop foreign interference.

2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

You best be careful TDS or the FBI will be looking into your continual sycophantic defence of Trump before too long.

 

What I don't understand from Trump fans is why are these matters so partisan; shouldn't ALL parties and law abiding citizens be concerned with election interferance? The FBI have proven without a doubt the 2016 election was heavily influenced by Russia (as was Brexit and the UK general election and many, many other countries I'm sure) so why doesn't the GOP come out and strongly back these findings? China is of course just as guilty so the concern for all should be to stop ALL election inteference never mind just the one that suits your party.

 

Oh and by the way, if you really cannot see why Russia would want a 'maverick outsider like Trump' to win, then you really haven't been paying attention. 

 

2 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

The "drumbeat" of misinformation is coming from Wray himself...he did not site even one example of the info to help Trump get reelected. 

 

Wray has stonewalled the investigations into FBI wrong doing against the Trump campaign and then as President...

 

One more swamp rat that needs to be eradicate...

 

Got to admire Trump fans' resilience to facts - Wray being nominated and appointed by Trump doesn't phase them one bit.

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

 

Thanks for aptly demonstrating what Wray's comments were about. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections

Trump’s debt to Putin keep growing. What dirty secrets tied to this unholy alliance. 

1 hour ago, johnnybangkok said:

The FBI have proven without a doubt the 2016 election was heavily influenced by Russia

Our recollections differ vastly. The way I remember it is Bob "15 wiped smartphones" Mueller found no collusion and no obstruction, and the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative died a sudden death never to be spoken of again. Did you have some other evidence to share with us? I guess after the millions and millions spent and 3 years wasted, including causing the distraction when corona started, we would have had some evidence if it existed. The closest evidence for the collusion I heard in the trial was when they dragged out Pamela Karlan to abuse Trumps child and testify she would cross the road to walk past Trump Tower oh boohoo. If they had stronger - or any - evidence that Trump colluded with Russia they would probably have used it during the impeachment trial, right?

  

5 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Our recollections differ vastly. The way I remember it is Bob "15 wiped smartphones" Mueller found no collusion and no obstruction, and the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative died a sudden death never to be spoken of again. Did you have some other evidence to share with us? I guess after the millions and millions spent and 3 years wasted, including causing the distraction when corona started, we would have had some evidence if it existed. The closest evidence for the collusion I heard in the trial was when they dragged out Pamela Karlan to abuse Trumps child and testify she would cross the road to walk past Trump Tower oh boohoo. If they had stronger - or any - evidence that Trump colluded with Russia they would probably have used it during the impeachment trial, right?

  

 

Considering the Mueller's investigation didn't actually refer to collusion, that's not surprising. As for the claim regarding obstruction, you are misrepresenting facts - Mueller simply couldn't follow up on that - the same issue with Investigations and interviews basically skirting Trump.

 

The millions spent canard was debunked numerous times. Fines and other financial punishments set on those charged cover the whole thing easily, and then some.

 

There was no distraction from Covid-19 associated with the investigation.

 

Keep beating that Drum of Misinformation. 

A troll post containing all sorts of unattributed misinformation has been removed 

12 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Our recollections differ vastly. The way I remember it is Bob "15 wiped smartphones" Mueller found no collusion and no obstruction, and the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative died a sudden death never to be spoken of again. Did you have some other evidence to share with us? I guess after the millions and millions spent and 3 years wasted, including causing the distraction when corona started, we would have had some evidence if it existed. The closest evidence for the collusion I heard in the trial was when they dragged out Pamela Karlan to abuse Trumps child and testify she would cross the road to walk past Trump Tower oh boohoo. If they had stronger - or any - evidence that Trump colluded with Russia they would probably have used it during the impeachment trial, right?

  

Stop posting fake news. Mueller did find collusion but that don jnr was too stupid to understand it so it didnt rise to conspiracy.

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by Sujo

When Donald is in trouble, his very good friend Vladimir

will be there doing all he can to help.

regards worgeordie

 

43 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Trump’s debt to Putin keep growing. What dirty secrets tied to this unholy alliance. 

Either "dirty secrets" or the fact that Putin wants to keep dumb-ass trump in the WH, because it is easy to manipulate an idiot.

5 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And here we go again. Reuters are intentionally conflating absentee voting(where the eligible voter requests a ballot by mail, fair enough) with the democrats plan to willy-nilly universal mail out up to 80 million ballots to all on the register without proper checks into who actually receives and fills the ballots. A scheme seemingly designed to help fraud with no benefit whatsoever - seeing as all real voters that want a mail in ballot can request one in a system that works well already.

 

Quick proof that the Reuters article is deeply flawed(I am being generous and polite).

 

"A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson's Third Ward city council was "rife with mail in vote procedural violations," Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/paterson-new-jersey-city-council-voter-fraud/index.html

 

As for the main thrust of the OP. Russian friends tell me the narrative is nonsense. Why on earth would Russia want to help Trump win a re-election? They tell me Trump has been very hard on Russia and it has been painful. They want another corrupt globalist swamp beast back at the reigns in the US, not a maverick outsider like Trump. 

The Keep Out the Vote crowd keeps recycling the one case of a small local election that attempted to get away with voter fraud and failed.  There is no evidence of voter fraud anywhere close to the scale necessary to influence a state or national election.

 

The protections against mail-in voter fraud occur when the vote is received.  When mail in ballots are received they are checked against voter rolls, information and signatures are verified, and they are checked to ensure it is one vote per voter. 

 

Whoever told you Trump has been very hard on Russia lied.  Trump has always been a push-over for Putin.  Congress has been tough on Russia.

4 hours ago, riclag said:

 

 

"The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our economic security—and by extension, to our national security".

https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states

 

biden is doing such a great job undermining himself with Americans,what a sad old sod ! Meanwhile  Mr. Trump is hell bent on the real threat,China!

 

"Yet, Biden mentioned none of those security, environmental and human rights matters in his speech accepting his party’s nomination. Nor did he talk about the effects of China’s malign behavior closer to home: its extensive efforts to infiltrate and subvert major American educational, scientific and governmental institutions and telecommunications systems, and to interfere in the U.S. election (which  China wants Biden to win, according to U.S. intelligence)".  

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/513392-where-does-biden-stand-on-china-and-taiwan

 

Did you not notice that this topic is about Russian interference in the upcoming election?

 

I'm sure if you really need to go on a China rant you can find a more appropriate topic to use.

4 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

The "drumbeat" of misinformation is coming from Wray himself...he did not site even one example of the info to help Trump get reelected. 

 

Wray has stonewalled the investigations into FBI wrong doing against the Trump campaign and then as President...

 

One more swamp rat that needs to be eradicate...

Right, Wray should be fired, along with the man who nominated him, Donald Trump.