WASHINGTON — The FBI on Saturday turned to social media accounts in an effort to stem the spread of two election-related videos that have been widely shared in the waning days of the campaign.
In its post, the Bureau warned the public that the videos are bogus.
One of the items claims that the FBI caught three "linked groups" committing ballot fraud. The other focuses on actions involving Doug Emhoff, the husband of the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"These videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false," the agency said.
The warning comes one day after the FBI confirmed that foreign agents were behind efforts to tamper with the election.
In a news release, officials said federal investigators learned "that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia."
They added that Russian operatives "also manufactured a video falsely accusing an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a U.S. entertainer. "
The 20-second Haitian-themed video, which began circulating on the social media platform X on Thursday afternoon, shows someone who describes himself as a Haitian immigrant talking about how he’s intending to vote multiple times in two Georgia counties for Vice President Kamala Harris.
He flashes several purported Georgia IDs with different names and addresses. An Associated Press analysis of the information on two of the IDs confirms it does not match any registered voters in Gwinnett or Fulton counties, the two counties he mentioned.
Georgia elections officials have also called the video phony.
The intelligence community expects Russia, in the days before the election and weeks and months after, “to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” said the joint statement from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
