He added, “This is not a partisan issue.” Ratcliffe said Iran was sending “spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters” as well as videos that purported to show how to cast fraudulent ballots - which Ratcliffe said were untrue. They offered few details but appeared to reference the emails attributed to the Proud Boys, though not by name. FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced on Wednesday that Iran and Russia had obtained voter registration information and would be using it to interfere with the upcoming presidential election. Indeed, intelligence officials now blame foreign actors for the campaign. This doesn’t mean the emails came from those countries, just that they were routed through servers in those countries - in which case it would indicate that the senders were trying to obscure their true origin. The email address that appears as the sender, was spoofed, and the emails themselves came from servers in Estonia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The emails do appear to be the work of someone else. Meanwhile, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio has denied having anything to do with the recent voter intimidation email campaign. According to reports, some members are currently engaged in a campaign to “watch” polling stations across America, which has caused concern that their presence will intimidate voters. Threats of violence against Democrats wouldn’t be completely out of character for the Proud Boys. On Monday and Tuesday, reports emerged that registered Democrats in several states, including but not limited to Alaska and Florida, received threatening emails ordering them to vote for Trump or “we will come after you.” Some of the emails contained the recipient’s personal information, and many came from an address that appeared to be linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group of so-called “western chauvinists.” The group recently received attention after Trump refused to disavow white supremacy during the first presidential debate and said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” (Trump later said he didn’t know anything about the Proud Boys and that they should “stand down.”) All this comes on top of fears that disinformation spread across social media will proliferate in this election as it has in previous years. Trump has encouraged his followers to serve as poll watchers, and there are reports that his supporters are congregating just outside buffer zones around polling locations. Russia is believed to have its own plans to disrupt the presidential election, according to the New York Times, including hacking into government computer systems. This comes as voter intimidation tactics, foreign and domestic, are of growing concern. But they offered few details as to how they came to this conclusion, and Iran has denied any involvement. Though many emails appeared to come from a violent group of Trump supporters, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a Wednesday press conference that Iran was likely behind them. What may be the clearest indication yet of foreign election interference came to light this week when people across the country reported receiving threatening emails ordering them to vote for President Trump.
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