Summary: On November 4, 2024, Alethea observed two videos that we assess with high confidence to have been posted by a Russian influence campaign to X. Both posts mentioned the FBI, were the only posts from the respective accounts, used the branding of mainstream U.S. news channels, and discussed potential election fraud associated with the 2024 Presidential Election. The first claimed that Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN), a deputy of Tim Walz, accused the FBI of assisting Donald Trump to win the election. The second claimed the FBI deemed 1,200 ballots from five different states as “tainted” or “spoiled” and that the “amount of falsification is just colossal.”
Why It Matters: Covert Russian information operations have been consistently active in the 2024 election, often posting multiple videos a day. They continue to present themselves as legitimate news outlets and often tag the outlet they’re impersonating. The consistent mentions of the FBI appear designed to undermine confidence in the agency. The posts receive what at first appears to be relatively high engagement for the accounts’ low follower count, though we assess that the vast majority of this engagement is artificial and inflated by additional accounts associated with the network.
Attribution: Alethea assesses with high confidence that both of these accounts are part of a Russian influence campaign based on shared behavioral, topical, and account characteristics. Alethea has reported on similar accounts in our recent Stormkiller report.
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As seen in previously attributed content, both posts include QR code alongside the faked video with the word “Verified” and the logo of an American news network (Fox News and Voice of America, respectively).
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Both posts are from older accounts with no other post history, similar to previously attributed accounts which had little to no posting history. .
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Alethea observed accounts with similar behaviors and account characteristics sharing both the identified posts as well as two videos reported in an FBI bulletin earlier today. These accounts appear to be automated and amplify a variety of crypto and other spammy content, as well as disinformation content.
Content/Narrative Analysis: The first video, posted by the account @olivehernandez1 (43 followers), claimed that Walz deputy and 2024 DNC chairwoman, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN), had stated that the FBI routinely releases damaging information regarding Democrats due to the intelligence community having a bias towards Republicans. We were not able to find any record of her having made these statements.
The video, which used the Fox News logo, featured text and music but does not have a voiceover. At the time of this writing, the post has received at least 4K views, 233 reposts and 311 likes. The account that posted the video was created in January 2012, with their location set to Crete, Nebraska; this is the only post from the account.
The other video, posted by the account @IborraDani (45 followers), used MSNBC branding and claimed that over 1200 ballots had been spoiled in attacks on drop boxes, sourcing the FBI for these claims. These ballots were allegedly damaged in Texas, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma and Louisiana. It then also alleged that voter fraud is occurring in the form of votes being cast in the names of deceased voters.
The post has received at least 2,391 views, 1 comment, 35 reposts, 4 likes, and 1 bookmark. This account was created in July, 2013; is allegedly from Campbell, California; and also only has one post.
Content Examples
https://x[.]com/olivehernandez1/status/1853412737369453034
Transcript: Tim Walz’s Deputy accused the FBI of doing work for Donald Trump’s campaign. Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s Lt. Governor and chairwoman of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, says the FBI routinely releases questionable information defaming the Democrats. She says that these reports falsely accuse the Democrats of election rigging events. Flanagan believes has to do with the political beliefs of the leadership of U.S. security agencies. “Unfortunately, the backbone of such organizations as the FBI, CIA, and NSA is traditionally made up of staunch Republican supporters. That’s a historical fact.”
https://x[.]com/IborraDani/status/1853456009081081984
Transcript: FBI, more than 1,200 ballots were spoiled. Miscreants [sic] destroyed ballots in street ballot boxes for advanced voting in Texas, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states. In addition, the FBI has reported voter fraud using the votes of deceased citizens. FBI Director Christopher Ray said in his interview with WNYC News Station. These are unprecedented cases that we have not yet encountered. The amount of falsification is just colossal. We were not prepared for it. The FBI earlier denied a video about three groups rigging votes in the U.S. presidential election. Ray says there are far more groups in question. There are hundreds of them. Congressman Dan Goldman and Congressman Stacey Plaskett in their new video series about the danger.
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