Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe revealed on Wednesday both Iran and Russia have attempted to interfere in the impending presidential election by acquiring US voter registration information. As part of its efforts, Iran has sent intimidating emails to voters, posing as the far-right group Proud Boys.

Making an appearance alongside FBI Director Chris Wray, Ratcliffe said at an urgently called news conference Wednesday that Iran was behind the email campaign, making it look as if the Proud Boys were responsible for it. Moreover, he said Iran has been spreading disinformation regarding voter fraud through a video linked in some of the threatening emails sent to voters.

Speaking of the US voter registration information obtained by Iran, Ratcliffe said the data could be used by actors from other countries to confuse voters, sow chaos and weaken their confidence in American democracy. He went on to say that Iran has been sending spoof emails in a bid to intimidate voters, create social unrest, and damage President Donald Trump.

Ratcliffe noted that most Americans may have either seen reporting on this in the last 24 hours or may have received one of those emails. He did not explain what he meant by his remark that the emails, which were sent to voters from info@officialproudboys.com and urged them to vote for Trump or face the consequences, were designed to damage Trump.

Groups of former intelligence officials and Democrats have accused him of selectively reassigning intelligence to lower classification ahead of the election to help Trump's campaign. Furthermore, Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee have criticized the former Republican congressman who was selected to spearhead the intelligence community in 2020 after the news conference.

Taking to its Twitter account, Partisan hack, the committee urged Americans not to pay heed to Ratcliffe. Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, accused him of trying to change the subject. The tweet was later deleted.

A senior intelligence official told CNN that the intelligence community has evaluated Iran's plans are consistent with Bill Evanina's earlier remarks on this matter, noting that Ratcliffe's comments that the emails were targeted at damaging Trump were made specifically concerning its current activities. The intelligence community's top election security official, Evanina, had said back in Aug. that Russia, Iran, and China were all trying to interfere in US elections.

Iran is closely following US politics and is familiar with the background of the Proud Boys recently mentioned in the presidential debate and realize that sending the emails they did would stir blowback in the media that would eventually damage Trump because of these identified violent Trump supporters intimidating Democrats, the official explained. The official was referencing to when the president told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" in the first presidential debate, a comment that garnered strong criticism.