U.S. adversaries are ramping up their efforts to influence domestic politics and disrupt
IT infrastructure. Investigations by the Department of Justice point to Russia,
China and North Korea as the main actors with the most sophisticated schemes targeting the
United States. Our Washington correspondent Luis Martinez has more. This week the Department of
Justice announced criminal charges and actions against a disinformation campaign sponsored
through Russian state media. RT's editor-in-chief said the company had built quote an entire empire
of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in western audiences. According to the DOJ,
Russian state media managed a 10 million dollar scheme to direct a Tennessee-based media company
to disseminate information favorable to the Putin regime which included hiring social media
influencers to disseminate divisive content on platforms. In a separate enforcement action,
the Justice Department is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and the
Russian-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence
the outcome of our country's elections. According to court filings, Russian President Vladimir
Putin's inner circle directly managed the disinformation campaign to influence U.S.
elections. We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic
system of government. We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts
by Russia and Iran as well as China or any other foreign malign actor to interfere in our elections
and undermine our democracy. Earlier this week, a former aide to two New York governors was
charged with being a foreign agent working for the Chinese Communist Party. Linda Sun,
a former deputy chief of staff of Governor Kathy Hochul and her husband Crisp Hu have been accused
of 10 crimes including money laundering conspiracy and alien smuggling. And in July, the DOJ indicted
North Korean nationals charging them with using ransomware attacks to hold hospitals and health
care providers in the U.S. hostages. According to the social media analytics firm Grafica,
the CCP-sponsored group Spamaflosh has ramped up its dissemination of divisive content
targeting conservative audiences. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News.
