With the November 3 elections inching closer, concerns of foreign parties that could interfere with the political event are surfacing. The threats place the nation's electoral system under assault from international rivals once again.
Foreign threats
According to The Columbian, United States intelligence officials announced that recently, foreign individuals have actively been attempting to compromise private communications of US political campaigns as well as candidates and other political parties.
Local authorities believe the parties are working to sabotage the country's election infrastructure. They are also actively spreading misinformation and malicious news that aim to confuse voters and create panic.
Despite no evidence showing that international entities have successfully penetrated political campaigns or state election systems, presidential candidate and former United States Vice President Joe Biden's campaign confirmed it faced several similar threats.
However, Biden's team had been reluctant in giving out information on the concerns due to fears that it would provide political rivals with useful intelligence they can use to their advantage.
The secrecy of the threats places foreign interference in the national elections in 2020 an afterthought even though both Democrats and Republicans confirm it to be a probable threat. The attacks could potentially cause a fundamental change in the elections at any given time.
Biden's campaign has revealed it is concerned with pro-Russian parties already having spread disinformation about the presidential candidate's family to his rival, Donald Trump's campaign along with the Republican's allies. The move is thought to be an attack meant to hurt the former vice president's campaign in the coming elections.
Trump's campaign, however, refused to comment on whether or not it had received such intelligence information regarding Biden from foreign entities. Last year, the United States president was impeached after he was caught pressuring Ukrainian leaders to spread damaging information about the son of his presidential rival and his work in the country.
A spokesman for Biden said that his campaign did not receive any intelligence materials from foreign parties. Spokesman Andrew Bates noted that the former vice president had been protecting and leading the nation with top international leadership for years serving as a politician, as reported by PBS.
Conspiring with international parties
On the other hand, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who is considered to be a pivotal ally to Trump, had denied allegations that he accepted intelligence materials that aimed to damage Biden from international entities.
The accusations surfaced after Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a Ukrainian national, told reporters that he had provided Johnson's committee and an ally of Trump, Rudy Giuliani, with tapes and transcripts.
On Friday, Democrats announced they have called for United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to attend court for the documents that he gave to Johnson's panel.
Austin Altenburg, a spokesperson for Johnson, said that the move the Democrats are using to utilize Russian disinformation as a means to attack investigations they do not favor is a disservice to the nation's election security efforts.
According to CBS7, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center have provided regular briefings to the 2020 campaigns and party committees. The center's director, Bill Evanina, released a statement last week where he confirmed Russia is continuously working to interfere with the US elections.
