:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/John-McCain-Meghan-McCain-Donald-Trump-Kamala-Harris-112124-a94d238beb1f4019a5b06f765a1917fe.jpg "Meghan McCain wrote in her dead dad, John McCain, in presidential election")
By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Wednesday sanctioned the top editor of Russian state media network RT and nine others over what it said were efforts to meddle in the 2024 presidential election.
The U.S. Treasury department said RT’s editor in chief, Margarita Simonovna Simonyan, and others affiliated with the network covertly recruited social media influencers to sway U.S. public opinion and spread pro-Kremlin messages.
The FBI separately sought court permission to seize 32 internet domains the U.S. government said were involved in “malign foreign influence” efforts, including attempts to undermine public support for U.S. aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The news came shortly before Attorney General Merrick Garland is due to speak at a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force.
A Russian lawmaker called the reported accusations “pure rubbish” and said Moscow does not think it matters whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris wins the Nov. 5 election.
“The only winner of the U.S. election is the U.S. private military industrial complex,” State Duma deputy Maria Butina told Reuters.
The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Moscow has repeatedly said it has not meddled in the U.S. election.
RT responded with ridicule. “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections,” the media outlet told Reuters.
The Justice Department has previously warned that Russia remains a threat to the presidential election. U.S. officials have said Russia has not shifted its preference from previous American presidential elections, indicating Moscow favors Trump.
U.S. intelligence assessments found that Moscow tried to help Trump in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Moscow has denied the allegations.
Lisa Monaco, the No. 2 Justice Department official, said last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his proxies have adopted increasingly sophisticated techniques, targeting specific groups of voters and those in battleground states.
The Justice Department in July said it disrupted a Russian social media campaign with links to RT that covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages.
The FBI last month searched the homes of two Americans with ties to Russian state media, including former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter and Dimitri Simes, an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The U.S. government has also accused Iran of attempting to influence the upcoming election through cyber operations against both the Trump and Harris campaigns. The Trump campaign has said Iran was behind the leak of internal campaign documents to U.S. media outlets.
U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that China is not planning to intervene in the presidential race to favor one candidate. But Reuters reported on Tuesday that a social media operation linked to Beijing is impersonating U.S. voters, denigrating U.S. politicians and pushing divisive messages ahead of the election.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Katharine Jackson and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Caitlin Webber, Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis)
