American intelligence agencies have traced the origin of a viral fake video — depicting the destruction of mail-in ballots for presidential candidate Donald Trump — to Russian agents, U.S. officials revealed.
Manufactured by Russia
The video, which has been viewed millions of times on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), shows a man appearing to sort and destroy ballots marked for Trump in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a key swing state.
In a joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed that the video was part of a Russian disinformation effort aimed at raising doubts about the validity of U.S. elections, according to Digi24.
"Russian agents manufactured and amplified a recent video falsely showing an individual tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania," the statement read.
A Fabricated Clip
U.S. agencies warned that Moscow's interference could intensify, with Russia potentially producing and circulating more fake videos as the November 5 election approaches.
This statement comes after Bucks County’s election board stated that the clip was entirely fabricated, noting that the mailer and documents shown in the video were not genuine.
Independent researchers, including Darren Linvill of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, attribute the video to the Kremlin-linked Storm-1516 disinformation network.
This same network previously attempted to discredit Democratic candidate Kamala Harris with false videos.
