Read on Twitter
Last night was nuts so let's talk about this statement a bit more in depth in the light of day, with coffee in hand 
DNI Ratcliffe says Iran spoofed Proud Boys emails and used publicly available voter records to intimidate voters in FL and AK.
(cont) https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/20/proud-boys-emails-florida/
DNI Ratcliffe says Iran spoofed Proud Boys emails and used publicly available voter records to intimidate voters in FL and AK.
(cont) https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/20/proud-boys-emails-florida/
Ratcliffe also says "Russia has access to voter information" (as it is public and easy to obtain), but after spending minutes describing the disturbing Iranian operation, doesn't really explain anything else we're seeing related to Russian influence campaigns.
This paints a confusing picture to the non-expert, IMO; it looks like "Iran did this horrible thing, Russia has some files."
Meanwhile, we know Russia has been interfering in political processes around the world for over a decade. Its US operations never stopped after 2016.
Meanwhile, we know Russia has been interfering in political processes around the world for over a decade. Its US operations never stopped after 2016.
(If you're interested in learning more about Russian ops elsewhere, I wrote a book about it: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/how-to-lose-the-information-war-9781838607685/)
The intel community's public assessments of foreign interference this election cycle have all given short shrift to Russia; we saw this with an initial notification about interference activities in July which placed China above Russia https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/item/2139-statement-by-ncsc-director-william-evanina-election-threat-update-for-the-american-public
And DNI Ratcliffe made the bizarre decision to declassify unverified intel about the 2016 election in what seemed to be a political move https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/us/politics/john-ratcliffe-intelligence.html
All of this amounts to an environment of distrust, unfortunately. When the American people are being briefed about ongoing threats to this election, I would prefer to not have to read between the lines of official announcements like a Soviet Kremlinologist.
The American people should trust that they're getting the full picture on foreign interference, not one viewed through a political lens meant to meet political ends. Sadly, that isn't our reality right now.
