Russia is responsible for online smears that circulated last week against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.
“Based on newly available intelligence, the intelligence community assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate earlier in his career,” an official with Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters at a press briefing.
Last week, videos and other content spread online accusing Walz of various misconduct when he was a high school teacher and football coach. One video claimed to feature a man, identified as Matthew Metro, who asserted that he was abused by Walz as a student. It widely circulated on X but it was entirely fabricated.
The Washington Post interviewed the real Matthew Metro, who said the man in the video is not him. Metro did attend the high school where Walz was a teacher, but was not one of his students. Other posts with allegations against Walz were shared on various platforms, but they too were quickly debunked.
Intelligence officials told reporters the false content against Walz used various tactics associated with previous misinformation campaigns by Russia.
"This video is consistent with the pattern of Russian influence actors seeking to undermine the Democratic presidential ticket by fabricating allegations against them," the official said. "One of their tactics they use is these staged direct-to-camera videos and trying to make them go viral."
Earlier this year, Russia staged a video of a woman who claimed to be part of a hit-and-run accident involving Vice President Kamala Harris in 2011, which was circulated by a fake website posing as a local San Francisco Television Station. In September, the Department of Justice indicted two Russian nationals for paying conservative influencers millions of dollars to post videos supporting Trump and various right-wing causes.
The Harris-Walz campaign told CNN that it condemns any interference from foreign governments in the upcoming election.
“Vladimir Putin wants Donald Trump to win because he knows Trump will roll over and give him anything he wants. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections,” spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said.
