Hegseth directs military to defend US midterm elections from foreign interference

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed a memo directing the military to defend the US midterm elections from foreign interference, the Pentagon said Monday.

US Cyber Command, the military’s cyberwarfare unit, and combat support agencies will “deploy advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities” to “identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference in US democratic processes,” the department said in a news release .

The memo , which comes about five weeks before the midterm elections, directs the command to work with the Department of Homeland Security to counter foreign cyber threats to US election infrastructure.

The activities outlined in the memo are largely things that US military and spy agencies were doing to protect American elections from foreign threats prior to Donald Trump returning to the presidency in 2025. Weeks before the 2024 presidential election, for example, Cyber Command hackers carried out a secret operation to disrupt the work of Russian trolls spewing false information at US voters, CNN previously reported .

But the second Trump administration has disbanded or downsized several government centers, namely within the FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, that were tasked with repelling foreign influence operations. Trump has also continued to dismiss or question past US intelligence about Russian and Chinese efforts to influence elections. Those factors prompted widespread concern among current and former US national security officials that the second Trump administration was not prioritizing defending US elections from foreign meddling.

Those concerns were heightened in April when the new head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, told lawmakers that he didn’t know if a specialized military and intelligence team dedicated to thwarting foreign threats to elections had been stood up for the midterm elections.

For every general and midterm election since the 2020 election, the team — known as the Election Security Group (ESG) — has been a hub for officials from the NSA and Cyber Command to share intelligence and launch counter attacks against trolls from Russia, Iran and elsewhere who were trying to undermine US elections. The group was a response to Russia’s multipronged influence operation aimed at the 2016 US election, when intelligence and security agencies were caught flat-footed.

It was not immediately clear what role, if any, that group will play in the new activity ordered by Hegseth.

Cyber Command and the NSA “regularly counter actions by malicious foreign cyber actors including those with the intent to interfere with our democratic process,” Rudd said in a statement on Monday.

“What concerns me is that [Rudd] testified as recently as April that he wasn’t sure if an Election Security Group existed at the command,” Andrew Schoka, who worked at Cyber Command in the 2020 election cycle, told CNN. “The ESG’s work takes months of planning and coordination, and a lot of their impact takes place far in advance of Election Day. If that’s just being started now, you’re really limiting the impact that you’re able to have on adversaries before the midterms.”

乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社

五角大楼周一表示，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯签署了一份备忘录，指示军方保卫美国中期选举免受外国干预。

美国国防部在一份新闻稿中表示，美国网络司令部（军方的网络战部队）和作战支援机构将“部署先进的情报和网络能力”，以“识别、干扰和消除外国对美国民主进程的干预”。

这份备忘录是在中期选举前大约五周发布的，指示指挥部与国土安全部合作，应对外国对美国选举基础设施的网络威胁。

备忘录中概述的活动，大多是美国军方和间谍机构在唐纳德·特朗普于 2025 年再次担任总统之前，为保护美国选举免受外国威胁而采取的措施。例如，据 CNN 此前报道，在 2024 年总统选举前几周，网络司令部的黑客进行了一项秘密行动，以干扰俄罗斯网络水军向美国选民散布虚假信息的活动。

但特朗普第二任期政府解散或缩减了多个政府机构的规模，特别是联邦调查局和国家情报总监办公室内部负责抵御外国干预行动的机构。特朗普还继续质疑或否定美国此前关于俄罗斯和中国试图干预选举的情报。这些因素引发了现任和前任美国国家安全官员的普遍担忧，他们认为特朗普第二任期政府并未将保护美国选举免受外国干预作为优先事项。

今年 4 月，网络司令部和国家安全局新任局长约书亚·M·鲁德将军告诉立法者，他不知道是否已经组建了专门负责挫败外国对选举威胁的军事和情报团队，以应对中期选举，这加剧了人们的担忧。

自2020年大选以来，历次大选和中期选举中，这个名为“选举安全小组”（ESG）的团队都扮演着重要角色，作为美国国家安全局（NSA）和网络司令部官员共享情报、反击来自俄罗斯、伊朗和其他地区试图破坏美国选举的网络水军的中心。该小组的成立是为了应对俄罗斯针对2016年美国大选的多管齐下的影响行动，当时情报和安全机构对此毫无防备。

目前尚不清楚该团体将在赫格塞斯下令开展的新活动中扮演何种角色（如果有的话）。

鲁德周一在一份声明中表示，网络司令部和国家安全局“经常反制恶意外国网络行为者的行动，包括那些意图干预我们民主进程的行为者”。

“令我担忧的是，鲁德在今年四月作证时还表示，他不确定网络司令部是否存在选举安全小组，”曾在2020年大选期间在网络司令部工作的安德鲁·肖卡告诉CNN。“选举安全小组的工作需要数月的规划和协调，而且他们的很多行动都发生在选举日之前。如果现在才开始，那么在中期选举前能够对对手产生的影响就非常有限了。”