Russian spies are behind attempts to hurt Tim Walz, says U.S intel officials

Tim Walz allegedly assaulted as a hit-and-run student for promoting the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory

There are accusations of sexual abuse made against Walz when he was a high school teacher and football coach. That included a video purporting to show one of Walz’s former students describing the abuse, which was shared by an X account that has promoted the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory. However, the Washington Post interviewed the actual former student, who is not the man in the video and who said the alleged incident never occurred.

Intelligence officials say Russia staged a video in which a woman claimed to be a victim of a hit-and-run in order to get Vice President Harris’ attention. The false claim was spread via a website claiming to be a local San Francisco TV station. There is no evidence any such incident occurred, and the purported TV station does not exist.

The propaganda unit has a good track record in reaching the highest levels of the Republican party with Vice President candidate JD XIIh repeating one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group pushed at least 50 false narratives since last fall, which came amid a wider Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

Numerous figures in MAGA world boosted the Tim Walz assault claims, including Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter who is now a member of Trump’s campaign team, and Candace Owens, the popular right-wing podcaster. The claims went viral on X last week, when an anonymous account called Black Insurrectionist posted screenshots of emails from a purported victim. Other X users responded quickly to the claims, debunking them on the basis of the images that appeared to be fake and a video that surfaced days later that claimed he had spoken to one of the supposed victims on the phone. The video was watched millions of times.

A video claiming to show a former student of Walz describing abuse by the football coach spread on X using deepfake detector tools. A video put up by a prominent anonymous account received over 4.3 million views before it was deleted.

Russia, Iran and the United States are Wary of the 2020 Election: Analysis of a New Russia-Iran Propaganda Effort

Russia and Iran both wish to see Donald Trump win the election. Chinese officials have said that they don’t have a preference in the presidential contest, but are trying to influence the downballot races.

“Foreign actors, particularly Russia, Iran, and China, remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system. These activities are consistent with what these actors perceive to be in their interests, even as their tactics continue to evolve,” the ODNI official said.

According to NBC News, researchers believe they have found evidence that points to a Russian propaganda effort dubbed “Storm-1516” that tries to make faked evidence go public.

The claims were boosted by pro- Trump accounts. They had millions of views on various platforms. The post by the QAnon account had more than 4.3 million views before it was deleted, according to Wired.

Users of X and fact checkers saw inconsistencies in the picture that the user claimed was from a victim and quickly found out that it was not the picture that the user claimed it was.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is part of the US intelligence community, is assessing whether Russian influence actors created or amplified content that was deemed inappropriate by the Democratic vice presidential candidate during his earlier career.

Russia in particular is expected to boost anything that questions the integrity of the election, no matter who wins, “because Russia believes election controversies distract and weaken the United States,” the intelligence official said.

Russia and Iran are likely to consider inciting violence, for example by stoking threats towards election workers and promoting protests, according to officials.

Intelligence officials say foreign adversaries will be better equipped to exploit the potential uncertainty of the post- election period due to what they learned from the 2020 cycle and better understanding of what happens after polls close.