U.S. report says Russia, not China, tried to influence 2020 election

The government of Russia tried to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign against then-candidate Joe Biden through the allies of former President Trump and his administration, U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday.

The assessment got space in a 15-page report into election interference published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It underscores allegations that Trump’s allies were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies found other attempts to persuade voters by Iran intended to undercut Trump’s support. The report also punctured a counter-narrative pushed by Trump’s allies that China was interfering on Biden’s behalf, concluding that Beijing ‘did not deploy interference efforts.’

U.S. officials said they also saw the attempts of Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”

U.S. intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia also interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump’s candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.