A
former
Florida
sheriff
who
moved
to
Russia
amid
an
FBI
investigation
is
a
Kremlin-backed
propagandist
responsible
for
viral
deepfake
videos
and
misinformation
targeting
Kamala
Harris’s
campaign,
according
to
European
intelligence
documents
reviewed
by
the
Washington
Post.
The
GRU,
Russia’s
military
intelligence
service,
gave
funding
to
John
Mark
Dougan,
the
operator
of
several
fake
news
websites.
According
to
documents
reviewed
by
the
Post,
Dugan
was
responsible
for
several
websites
that
seemingly
published
fake
local
news,
including
DC
Weekly,
Chicago
Chronicle,
and
Atlanta
Observer.
The
documents,
which
mostly
focus
on
the
time
between
March
2021
and
August
of
this
year,
show
that
Dougan
worked
with
Yury
Khoroshevsky,
an
officer
within
the
GRU’s
Unit
29155.
Two
European
security
officials
told
the
Post
that
Khoroshevsky’s
unit
handles
sabotage,
political
interference
operations,
and
cyberwarfare
targeting
the
West.
Dougan
also
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,
also
works
closely
with
Khoroshevsky,
according
to
documents
reviewed
by
the
Post.
Khoroshevsky
started
depositing
payments
in
Dougan’s
bank
account
in
April
2022
and
frequently
met
with
him
and
Dougan,
the
documents
show.
Dougan
received
some
of
the
payments
after
the
websites
he
created
had
difficulty
accessing
Western
AI
generators.
Disinformation
experts
and
the
government
have
been
sounding
the
alarm
about
Russian
operatives
attempting
to
influence
the
2024
presidential
election.
The
Biden
administration
has
alleged
that
Russian
influence
campaigns
have
operated
websites
and
social
media
accounts
to
influence
the
election,
and
that
they’ve
created
fake
social
media
personas
to
spread
disinformation.
In
July,
the
Department
of
Justice
seized
two
domain
names
and
more
than
900
media
accounts
it
claims
were
part
of
an
“AI-enhanced”
Russian
bot
farm.
Dougan
may
also
be
responsible
for
disseminating
a
video
involving
false
sexual
misconduct
allegations
against
Minnesota
Governor
Tim
Walz,
disinformation
experts
told
the
Post.
The
person
in
the
video
claims
to
be
Matthew
Metro,
a
former
student
of
Walz’s
—
but
the
real
Matthew
Metro
has
debunked
both
the
video
and
the
claims.
NewsGuard,
a
company
that
tracks
disinformation
online,
told
the
Post
that
Dougan
was
the
initial
source
for
the
claims.
Eleven
days
before
the
video
was
posted,
Dougan
appeared
on
a
podcast
with
an
anonymous
man
who
claimed
to
be
a
former
exchange
student
from
Kazakhstan
who
was
abused
by
Walz.
Dougan
told
the
Post
he
wasn’t
behind
DC
Weekly
and
other
sites
and
said
he
didn’t
know
Korovin
or
Khoroshenky.
He
said
he
worked
as
an
IT
consultant
for
an
American
company.
“I
will
tell
you
hypothetically,
if
they
were
my
sites,”
he
said,
“then
I
am
merely
fighting
fire
with
fire
because
the
West
is
fucking
lying
about
everything
that’s
happening,”
Dougan
said.
“They
are
lying
about
everything.”
(Originally posted by Gaby Del Valle)
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