US officials believe two other fake videos circulating online and publicly identified by the FBI as an attempt to promote false claims about election security are likely part of a Russian-backed malign influence campaign ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election, two sources familiar with the process told CBS News.
The news comes after the FBI said in a statement Saturday that the videos “are not authentic, do not come from the FBI, and the content they depict is false.”
The agency said one of the videos falsely claims that “the FBI apprehended three related groups committing election fraud, and the second involves first gentleman Doug Emhoff.”
The FBI, in its statement, did not say who was behind the videos and, when contacted by CBS News, declined to comment further.
He added that both videos — using Department of Justice and FBI signs and footage of Emhoff — were released as part of “attempts to mislead the public with false content about FBI operations.”
The FBI did not attribute the creation of the propaganda to any actor.
Saturday’s revelation brings to four the number of fake videos produced and distributed by Russia to mislead the American electorate and which have been publicly identified in recent days by the American government.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday says a video which claims to show Haitians claiming that they voted illegally because Harris is fake and probably the work of a Russian troll farm.
And in a joint statement Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the intelligence community “believes that Russian influence actors” fabricated the video.
Another fake video that appears to show someone destroying mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County is also fake, state and federal officials said.
The ODNI, FBI and CISA said in a statement Friday that “Russian actors fabricated and amplified” this video.
In recent weeks, US intelligence and Microsoft have estimated that US adversaries led influence campaigns to mislead voters in the 2024 elections.
The US government and Microsoft I said that Russia favors former President Donald Trump, while Iran favors Vice President Kamala Harris.
Marguerite Brennan
