Top Democrats say U.S. Congress appears to be election interference target

The U.S. Congress appears to the target of foreign disinformation campaign aimed at influencing lawmakers' activities and the upcoming presidential contest, top Democrats said in a letter released on Monday.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray dated July 13, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees said they were "gravely concerned" that Congress seemed to be in the crosshairs of "a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November." The nature of the disinformation campaign was not made clear, although the letter referred to the threat as serious and specific.

One congressional official said that the Democrats' letter was prompted by the accumulation of intelligence. The official declined to discuss in detail any of the specific intelligence reporting or analyses that raised such concerns. A second congressional official said that a classified addendum was sent alongside the letter that drew mainly from the U.S. government's own reporting. No Republican lawmakers signed the letter. The FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.