Russian actors made fake video showing destruction of mail-in ballots for Trump, FBI says

YARDLEY, Pa. (AP) — Russian actors were behind a widely circulated video that falsely showed mail-in votes for donald trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, US officials confirmed on Friday.

The video had taken off on social media on Thursday, but was debunked three hours later by local election officials and law enforcement after members of the public reported it.

US officials said in a statement sent by the FBI who believe the video was “fabricated and amplified” by Russian actors. The officials said it is part of “a broader effort by Moscow to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

The information was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Bucks County Board of Elections identified the video as fake on Thursday and said the envelope and other materials in the video “are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed” by the board.

The quick removal of the staged video showed how election officials I have learned to move quickly. to counter the false narratives of the past four years, since a large portion of American voters distrusted the voting process in 2020. However, the detailed imitation of ballots in a key county in this year’s presidential race in the video was a wake-up call that demonstrated how committed foreign actors are to undermining confidence in the US voting process. in the critical stretch before voting concludes.

The video showed a person sorting what appeared to be mail-in ballots labeled as coming from Bucks County. The person, who was Black, appeared to be tearing up ballots marked for Trump and leaving ballots marked for Vice President Kamala Harris alone.

Researchers who closely study Russian foreign influence campaigns had previously linked the video to a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop. The network has previously shared numerous videos with false claims about Harris and his running mate, Tim Walz.

Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, who closely studies the group, said the user who popularized the Bucks County video on social platform this network, including the first one his team tracked, in August 2023.

The style and appearance of the latest video also matches other videos on the network, Linvill said.

The video used a black actor with a foreign accent, a choice that may be intentional as a way to inflame existing divisions on American soil, according to Josephine Lukito, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin who has researched misinformation. Russian. .

It’s a common strategy in deepfake videos originating in Russia, he said.

“It tends to amplify racism, right?” Lukito said. “There is already this kind of discussion about immigrants voting illegally or immigration in general. “Russian disinformation absolutely exploits that.”

After the video was debunked, user X who popularized it deleted his original post and shared several posts from other accounts denouncing it as fake.

América PAC, a super political action committee launched by Elon Musk, owner of billionaire X, will support Trump in his bid for a second term. was among those who reported the video — a stark contrast to the misinformation frequently spread on X, often stimulated by Musk himself. The PAC declined a request for further comment.

There were multiple clues that immediately indicated the Bucks County video was fabricated. For example, under Pennsylvania law, election officials must wait until 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Election Day before they can begin processing mail-in ballots and preparing them for counting.

Other clues included the dark green color on the left side of the outer envelopes; In reality, it is more of a kelly green – and the shine of the inner and outer envelopes, which actually have a matte finish. Additionally, none of the envelopes in the video had the voters’ return address written on them.

Complaints from citizens across Bucks County and a call from the Yardley Borough Police Chief alerted District Attorney Jennifer Schorn that the video was circulating online. Schorn was at a pretrial conference Thursday and when he came out he saw the calls about the video coming in.

“Immediately at that point, we began investigating the video and came to the final conclusion that it was, in fact, fabricated,” he said in a telephone interview Friday.

Schorn was reluctant to describe how authorities reached their conclusion, citing concerns that later scammers could improve their tactics. He said his office has assigned two attorneys to examine the fraud allegations and they will be there “24/7” on Election Day.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the county called the video fake and expressed concerns about how it could affect the election.

“To us, this is disinformation, intended to scare voters and discourage them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in voting process,” the Bucks County Republican Committee said. wrote in a statement. “We’ve seen dirty and underhanded tactics this year, from defacing signs, letters threatening Trump supporters, and now this video trying to scare Bucks County voters.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, called the video an attempt to “cast doubt on our mail-in voting system and, ultimately, the outcome of the presidential election.” in a statement.

Officials said they were encouraged by the speed with which this disinformation and some other harmful falsehoods have been detected during this election cycle.

“I don’t blame Americans at all for wanting to be assured that the system can be trusted,” Schorn said. ”I don’t blame him because, unfortunately, there are criminal entities that undermine the processes. I felt calm yesterday. I felt like it worked like it was supposed to.”

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