Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that Iran and Russia are working to actively undermine the public perception of the integrity of the elections, contradicting a claim Ratcliffe made earlier this week that he had no evidence that Russia was not active in election interference.

During a Wednesday evening press briefing, Ratcliffe said that Iran has distributed emails containing threatening and intimidating information.  Ratcliffe did not mention that the email in question was sent spoofing the name of The Proud Boys, a far-right group favoring President Trump.  Iran reportedly got the email address by hacking voter registration information.

Ratcliffe did mention that preventing election interference was an issue supported by bipartisan leadership in Congress, however Ratcliffe made specific note that the interference was designed to “harm President Trump.”

Ratcliffe went on to specifically say that “President Trump” authorized the US national security agencies to protect the US election process, and that “President Trump” was doing everything in his power to ensure the integrity of the elections.

Ratcliffe stressed the role of Iran in trying to impact next month’s election.  He made cursory mention of Russia, saying that they obtained some data from voter rolls, but did not mention Russian influence programs and bot activity reported by national security agencies and multiple media accounts.

FBI Director Christopher Wray was apolitical in his statement, saying that the FBI was committed to bring bad actors to justice and to insuring the safety and integrity of election results.