Russia conducted malign influence operations in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and is using increasingly clandestine means to "penetrate the Western information environment," the U.S. intelligence community said in a new report Wednesday. The 2023 report came four months after the most recent midterm elections, where concerns about Russian influence efforts were more muted in comparison with the two previous presidential election cycles in 2016 and 2020. Trump — who during that campaign had called on Russia to find his then-rival Hillary Clinton's emails — later questioned whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. In 2022, for instance, the office determined that Russia "almost certainly" sees U.S. elections as opportunities for malign influence to influence its foreign policy goals. "These activities can include disseminating false content and amplifying information perceived as beneficial to Russian influence efforts or conspiracy theories."

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