The White House website has published a trove of declassified documents on foreign interference in U.S. elections. Among them are intelligence reports from 2020 that conclude Russia attempted to discredit Democrat Joe Biden and help Republican Donald Trump win the presidential election.
One memorandum from the U.S. National Intelligence Council, dated Aug. 19, 2020 — more than two months before the election itself — says Russia, Iran, and China had the ability to interfere with voting, steal confidential information, and conduct information campaigns aimed at undermining the legitimacy of election results.
“Russia is using a range of measures primarily to denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment,” the memorandum reads. “For example, it is directing or encouraging proxies to spread claims about Vice President Biden. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump's candidacy on social media. More broadly, Moscow's efforts seek to amplify social discord in the U.S. and undermine Washington's global standing.”
According to the intelligence assessment, the effort to discredit Biden was overseen by senior Russian officials including Vladimir Putin himself:
“President Putin and senior Russian officials are overseeing efforts by proxies — [redacted] — to spread claims about former Vice President Biden as well as Ukrainian politicians and alleged Ukrainian influence in the 2016 US election. These claims include that when the former Vice President was in office, he engaged in criminal activity in his dealings with Ukraine and individuals tied to Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Derkach, Kilimnik, and other proxy actors affiliated with the Russian Government are advancing such narratives with U.S. officials and other prominent persons as well as online, including through personal interactions and audio and documentary film releases via U.S. and Ukrainian media outlets.”
The memorandum’s authors also said Russia used a “troll factory,” the SVR foreign intelligence service and the GRU military intelligence agency to work with American and other foreign writers to produce anti-American content for English-language websites. The campaign’s goal was described as defeating Biden and securing Trump’s reelection.
Another National Intelligence Council document, dated Jan. 15, 2020, described the ability of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.
“Russia almost certainly reconnoitered all US state election networks during the 2016 election cycle, accessed election-related infrastructure in at least two states, and exfiltrated voter data from at least one state,” the document says. “Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are al capable of conducting similar operations during the 2020 election cycle, judging from their known cyber capabilities and past operations.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to the White House publications, saying, “Russia has never interfered in anyone else’s internal affairs, and we expect that no one will try to interfere in our internal affairs.”
During Trump’s first term, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated alleged collusion between Trump and Moscow. Throughout the investigation, Trump referred to the process as a “witch hunt” and denied having ties to Moscow. After nearly two years of work, Mueller concluded that there had been no conspiracy between Trump, his circle and the Kremlin, but that Russia had indeed tried to interfere in the 2016 election.
Mueller died on March 20, 2026, at age 81. Trump publicly celebrated his death, writing on Truth Social: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
On the evening of July 16, Trump delivered a prime-time speech on election security. In it, he accused China of interfering in the 2020 election, which the Republican continues to insist was “stolen” from him. He said almost nothing about the Kremlin’s interference in the 2020 campaign, mentioning Russia only once: “we judge that the United States' adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as non-state groups have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.”
