(CNN) — US investigators suspect that Russian operatives were behind a fake video purporting to show someone destroying mail-in ballots in a Pennsylvania county that circulated on social media on Thursday, two sources briefed on the matter said. The FBI and the intelligence community are assessing the video and believe it is part of an ongoing Russian malign influence campaign in the final days of the US election campaign , the sources said. The Board of Elections in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, was quick to debunk the video on Thursday.
“The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” the board said in a statement. The county is crucial in determining whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The video appeared on Thursday afternoon on X and was shared by some users as supposed evidence of voter fraud.
But the video was hatched by Russian operatives, according to Darren Linvill, an expert on Russian disinformation campaigns at Clemson University. The video was “created in the style and manner of many previous” videos from a Russian information campaign known as Storm-1516, Linvill told CNN. “More importantly, it appeared for the first time from an account that has originated previous Storm narratives and routinely shares campaign content,” he said.
It’s the latest example of.
