U.S. adversaries will likely continue their efforts to meddle between next month’s elections and before the next president is inaugurated in January 2025, according to U.S. intelligence community officials.

American adversaries — primarily China, Russia, and Iran — have carried out dis- and misinformation campaigns online to disparage U.S. politicians, promote divisive and controversial topics meant to divide the American electorate, and U.S. officials believe their efforts will not stop on Election Day, which is two weeks away.

After Election Day, U.S. adversaries will likely seek to stoke concerns of interference or fraud regardless of evidence, could push for large-scale protests or demonstrations, and even violence, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

“The [intelligence community] assesses that foreign actors are highly likely to conduct Information Operations in the period after voting ends, to create uncertainty and try to undermine the legitimacy of the election process,” an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters, later adding, “Iran and Russia are probably willing to at least consider tactics that would contribute to such violence.”

Officials indicated that the adversaries will try to capitalize on however Election Day plays out, whether that’s pushing disinformation about voter fraud impacting the results or pushing for ordinary Americans to join protests about the results.

The attempt to sow doubt in the election results comes after former President Donald Trump refused to concede the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Trump continues to argue publicly that fraud cost him the election, but his campaign filed dozens of court cases that were all thrown out, there were several recounts in relevant states, and government agencies supported the results as valid.

Given Trump’s behavior after losing the 2020 election, and how it led to the events that ultimately resulted in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, there are lingering questions about how he would handle losing to Vice President Kamala Harris if that happens next month. Some Democrats have also left the door open when it comes to accepting the results. If either campaign were to deny the election results, it would presumably provide the country’s adversaries an opening to sow distrust.

The ODNI official downplayed the possibility that U.S. adversaries will try to actually flip the outcomes of the elections.

“Some foreign actors probably have the technical capability to access some US related networks and systems,” the official explained. “However, the intelligence community assessment actors will probably refrain from disruptive attacks that seek to alter vote counts, even if they tried. Our vote casting systems are resilient against manipulation attempts, and foreign actors almost certainly would not be able to manipulate official vote tallies and results on a large scale.”

The ODNI also announced the intelligence community’s conclusion that a rumor that surfaced on social media earlier this month alleging that vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) had an inappropriate relationship with a student was Russian disinformation.

“We expect Russia will be more aggressive in this period if the vice president wins the election,” the ODNI official said.

Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing “are better prepared to exploit opportunities in the post election day period, in part because of the lessons drawn from the 2020 election cycle,” the official added, and there is a wide range of ways they could exploit whatever occurs in the elections.

While Moscow wants Trump back in office, Tehran would prefer to see a Harris administration. Iranian hackers, seeking to bolster Harris’s chances, were able to hack the Trump campaign and they sought to share confidential information with the then-Biden campaign and media outlets.

Iran also has sought to retaliate against Trump and former officials of his administration who were involved in the Jan. 2020 U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The U.S. has sought the arrest of two different individuals with Iranian ties for their role in plots to carry out separate assassinations of Trump and his former national security adviser John Bolton.

The threats the former officials face “are likely to persist after voting ends, regardless of the projected outcome,” a recently declassified memorandum from the National Intelligence Council said.

Beijing for its part, according to the ODNI, does not have a preferred candidate but has sought to shape the global opinion of themselves.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER 

In December 2020, an Iranian-linked group created a website threatening U.S. election officials. The fake website “put out information about election officials who were involved in these processes as the process was still ongoing,” an official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters.

More recently, in Jan. 2024, a Russian GRU unit sought to recruit an American to organize protests in the U.S., the memo said, noting that the person was “probably unwitting,” while in May and June, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security encouraged an American through social media to attend a pro-Palestinian protest in Washington, D.C, going as far as “offering to send money for travel.”