The US assures that Russia and Iran tried to manipulate the result of the 2020 presidential elections

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, in a 2019 file photo.Susan Walsh / AP

Both Russia and Iran sought to influence the outcome of the past presidential elections in the United States, according to a report published Tuesday by the Office of the National Director of Intelligence, which concludes that despite this attempt, US espionage did not find any evidence that Some figure of foreign weight will manage to change the direction of the vote or disturb the election process by technically manipulating the registry to be able to vote, falsify the vote, the count or the information of the results, according to reports, among other means, the

Associated Press (AP)

news agency

.

It is a document that includes the greatest description of the wide range of foreign threats suffered by the past elections, which includes Russian influence operations that the intelligence corps assures were authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Iran's determination to undermine confidence in the electoral process to damage Donald Trump's chances of reelection, always according to

AP

.

The report confirms what the cybersecurity section of the Department of Homeland Security assured the day after the presidential elections of November 3: “We have no proof that a foreign enemy is capable of preventing Americans from voting or altering the result of the polls".

However, and according to the intelligence document, the adversaries of the United States, in this case Russia and Iran, dedicated themselves to “spreading false or exaggerated statements that claimed that, supposedly, the voting systems were not trustworthy, which it weakened public confidence in the process and the outcome. "

While Russia supported the reelection of ex-president Trump - trying to muddy the candidacy and the name of Joe Biden -;

Iran opposed the former Republican president.

Moscow's attempts were becoming more and more obvious as the election campaign progressed.

A key element of the Russian attacks on Democrat Biden centered on the false allegations that the former president of Barack Obama, while in power, attempted to remove a Ukrainian judge with the intention that his son, Hunter, would not be investigated. Biden - who was for a time part of the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

The report specifically names Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician, who acted on Putin's behalf to try to discredit candidate Biden.

During the campaign, Derkach met with Rudy Giuliani, Trump's controversial personal attorney, to lobby for his boss in the election.

"Russia carried out a successful intelligence operation that penetrated the innermost circle of the president," said the chairman of the House Intelligence committee, Representative Adam Schiff, on Tuesday.

According to the democrat, the dossier of the Office of the Director of Intelligence confirms that Russian agents "dedicated themselves to inoculating disinformation in our political system with the ultimate intention of denigrating now President Biden and damaging his candidacy."

Another of the highlights of the US espionage document is that Russia's influence in the 2020 electoral process was not as extensive as that which occurred in 2016, when hackers in the service of the Kremlin accessed the computers of the Democratic Party and put Emails that severely damaged Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign are available to the public.

"Unlike 2016, this time we have not found any cybernetic attempt to penetrate electoral infrastructures," the document states.

Regarding Iran, the report describes how the Islamic republic carried out "a vast covert campaign of influence" aimed at destabilizing the elections.

Specifically, the document cites that Iran's efforts were intended “to undermine Trump's chances of reelection -although he did so without directly promoting his rivals-, damaging the confidence of citizens in the electoral process and US institutions. and sow division and exacerbate social tensions within the United States. "

Of course, China has a mention in the report of the Office of the National Director of Intelligence, but in a very different context than Russia or Iran does.

"We have verified that China did not develop any interference and, although it considered it, it did not make any effort to change the outcome of the presidential elections," the dossier concludes.

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