Russia reportedly paid a former Florida cop to pump out anti-Harris deepfakes and disinformation

A erstwhile Florida sheriff who moved to Russia amid an FBI probe is simply a Kremlin-backed propagandist liable for viral deepfake videos and misinformation targeting Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to European quality documents reviewed by the Washington Post.

The GRU, Russia’s subject quality service, gave backing to John Mark Dougan, the relation of respective fake quality websites. According to documents reviewed by the Post, Dugan was liable for respective websites that seemingly published fake section news, including DC Weekly, Chicago Chronicle, and Atlanta Observer. The documents, which mostly absorption connected the clip betwixt March 2021 and August of this year, amusement that Dougan worked with Yury Khoroshevsky, an serviceman wrong the GRU’s Unit 29155. Two European information officials told the Post that Khoroshevsky’s portion handles sabotage, governmental interference operations, and cyberwarfare targeting the West.

Dougan besides reportedly worked with the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, a Moscow-based institute founded by far-right Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin. The center’s director, Valery Korovin, besides works intimately with Khoroshevsky, according to documents reviewed by the Post. Khoroshevsky started depositing payments successful Dougan’s slope relationship successful April 2022 and often met with him and Dougan, the documents show. Dougan received immoderate of the payments aft the websites helium created had trouble accessing Western AI generators.

Disinformation experts and the authorities person been sounding the alarm astir Russian operatives attempting to power the 2024 statesmanlike election. The Biden medication has alleged that Russian power campaigns person operated websites and societal media accounts to power the election, and that they’ve created fake societal media personas to dispersed disinformation. In July, the Department of Justice seized 2 domain names and much than 900 media accounts it claims were portion of an “AI-enhanced” Russian bot farm.

Dougan may besides beryllium liable for disseminating a video involving mendacious intersexual misconduct allegations against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, disinformation experts told the Post. The idiosyncratic successful the video claims to beryllium Matthew Metro, a erstwhile pupil of Walz’s — but the existent Matthew Metro has debunked some the video and the claims. 

NewsGuard, a institution that tracks disinformation online, told the Post that Dougan was the archetypal root for the claims. Eleven days earlier the video was posted, Dougan appeared connected a podcast with an anonymous antheral who claimed to beryllium a erstwhile speech pupil from Kazakhstan who was abused by Walz.

Dougan told the Post helium wasn’t down DC Weekly and different sites and said helium didn’t cognize Korovin oregon Khoroshenky. He said helium worked arsenic an IT advisor for an American company.

“I volition archer you hypothetically, if they were my sites,” helium said, “then I americium simply warring occurrence with occurrence due to the fact that the West is fucking lying astir everything that’s happening,” Dougan said. “They are lying astir everything.”