Last Updated on October 21, 2020
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a press conference Wednesday that the nation of Iran was behind behind a fake “Proud Boys” email harassment campaign, for the purposes of interfering in the 2020 American presidential election on behalf of the Joe Biden campaign.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray held a joint news conference Wednesday evening in which media reports that the Proud Boys organization was harassing Democrat voters via email were thoroughly debunked.
Ratcliffe stated that intelligence agencies have already seen “Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump. You may have seen some reporting on this in the last twenty-four hours, or you may have even been one of the recipients of those emails.”
The law enforcement officials on to pontificate about the dangers of foreign actors interfering in American elections, repeating the narrative that Russia is actively carrying out election interference operations on American soil. No examples of such interference in the 2020 campaign were cited in the press conference.
Iranian actors used the domain officialproudboys.com, which make the story seem ridiculous from the outset, as well as the use of language like “You will vote for Trump or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you.”
Nonetheless, the false Proud Boys story was breathlessly reported by many left-wing corporate media outlets, who sought to use it for the same reason as the Iranian actors who fabricated the story did – to damage President Trump and aid in the election campaign of Democrat nominee Joe Biden.
Many organizations such as the anti-Trump Lincoln Project are tirelessly working to delete tweets that first spread the Proud Boys story on social media.
