FBI Director Christopher Wray said he expects threat actors from countries like Russia and China to cause possible interference in the U.S. presidential elections in 2020, The Hill reported Wednesday.
“Some of the things that the Russians have tried in other countries we expect them to try to do here as well, it’s pretty common to test it out in other jurisdictions, thankfully we don’t have elections every year, so that gives us a little bit of time to plan ahead,†Wray said Wednesday in his testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee.
He noted that China, North Korea and Iran are “clearly interested in engaging in malign foreign influence†through disinformation efforts via social media and other activities in an attempt to interfere in the elections.
“They all have different ways of going about it, but they are all taking pages out of each others’ playbooks, and as we project forward that is something that we have to be vigilant about,†Wray said of the three countries.
Kevin McAleenan, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, also testified before the House panel about potential threats to election security.