Iran behind supposed “Proud Boys” voter-intimidation emails, Feds allege

Enlarge / FBI Director Chrisopher Wray speaking at a press conference in Washington, DC, on October 7. (credit: Jim Watson | AFP | Bloomberg | Getty Images)

We now have less than two weeks to go before the federal voting deadline for the presidential election on November 3, and basically everything is, as many expected, hitting the fan at once. Now, intelligence officials and lawmakers are all but begging Americans to be less credulous with what they see and hear online amid new allegations that actors from Iran emailed individual voter-intimidation efforts.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray joined forces at a hastily announced press conference Wednesday night to issue a warning that foreign actors "have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our elections." Specifically, Ratcliffe said, actors from Iran and Russia had separately obtained "some voter registration information" and were using it "to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence in American democracy."

Ratcliffe was referring to an email campaign that started earlier this week, when some voters in Florida, Arizona, and Alaska started receiving threatening messages.

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