Intel defensive briefings surge as adversaries seek to influence congressional races

Intelligence community officials said they have given more than three times the number of defensive briefings this year to those who may be the target of foreign influence efforts as in past election cycles.

The details come as officials warn that China, Russia and Cuba are making a concerted effort to target congressional races in the U.S., using tactics similar to those seen in bids to influence the presidential election.

Intelligence agencies offer defensive briefings when it believes a foreign country has tried to interfere with a campaign or candidate — including when Iran hacked the Trump campaign over the summer.

While officials won’t disclose whom the briefings were provided to, the spike shows the growth in efforts to shape the U.S. election.

“Moscow is leveraging a wide range of influence actors in an effort to influence congressional races, particularly to encourage the U.S. public to oppose pro-Ukraine policies and politicians. Russian influence actors have planned and likely created and disseminated content, particularly over social media, intended to encourage the election of congressional candidates Moscow assesses will oppose aid to Ukraine,” an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters Monday.

China has similarly been seeking to influence elections based on candidates’ positions on Taiwan, which China considers to be one of its territories.

Intelligence officials said Cuba “almost certainly has considered influence operations targeting some candidates,” adding the country will likely try to “curry favor” with various politicians.

“Havana is very focused on a handful of policy issues that it believes to be negatively impacting the regime. This includes the U.S. embargo on Cuba and other economic and travel restrictions, all of which Havana perceives as an effort to force regime change. Havana considers election influence activities as part of its standing requirements to influence those policies, and Florida is a prime target of their activities,” the official said.

“To that end, we have observed Cuba tailoring influence activities based on its perception of candidates, stances on policies towards Cuba in 2020. For example, Havana intended to denigrate specific candidates in Florida and pushed influenced narratives to the Latin American community.”

This story was updated at 3:13 p.m. on Oct. 7.