The FBI apprehended groups for ballot fraud? A video making that claim is fake, FBI says

A video shared on social media says the FBI has busted mail-in ballot rigging, but the video is fake, the agency said. 

"FBI Report: Three affiliated groups were arrested for rigging early voting with mail-in ballots," said a Nov. 1 X post sharing the video. The X account was suspended Nov. 3. 

The 39-second video, which includes a seal in the upper right corner that says "Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation," begins with a photo of the back of a purported FBI agent standing over a vehicle. 

The video’s narrator says, "Three linked groups have been apprehended for rigging early voting by mail in ballot. List of names of recently deceased U.S. citizens and/or Americans aged 90 and over were used for electoral falsification." 

The narrator says investigative journalist Eliot Higgins commented on the operation to the FBI. Higgins is founder of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism group. 

Then the narrator attributes this statement to Higgins: "We have seen this before in 2020. The FBI did a great job but that does not mean the election results will be transparent and honest. We don’t know how many such groups, acting on behalf of the Democrats, there are still in the United States." 

Higgins told us via email that he didn’t say that.

Higgins also posted Nov. 2 on X, "This is part of the Russian disinformation campaign that's published dozens, if not hundreds of videos making various false claims, along with fake ‘verified’ QR codes. All the views, (retweets), and likes you see on this post are inauthentic, all from for-hire bot networks the people running the campaign regularly use."

Higgins wrote that while Russia has tried to influence the U.S. election, "It's had zero impact on the election, and has just been a good way for some oligarch to make a bunch of money off his Russian government master."

The FBI said in a Nov. 2 statement, "The FBI is aware of two videos falsely claiming to be from the FBI relating to election security, one stating the FBI has apprehended three linked groups committing ballot fraud and a second relating to the Second Gentleman. These videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI and the content they depict is false."

One sign that the video is fake: it lacks basic details such as where the alleged crime took place and how many rigged ballots were cast. It also plays on a common theme of election falsehoods that ballots were cast in the names of dead voters on a massive scale — which we have previously rated False. It also claims that such fraud is committed only by Democrats, which we also have rated False.

Groups that research fake videos and media outlets wrote that the videos the FBI warned about were manufactured by the Russians, however the U.S. federal government had not confirmed that as of midday Nov. 3.

The group Antibot4navalny, which investigates Russian disinformation, wrote Nov. 2 on X, "We confidently attribute both of the videos referred to by @FBI as belonging to Matryoshka, a Russian state influence operation, which is ongoing since Sept 2023." The account is manned by an anonymous group of volunteers and has been quoted by several mainstream news outlets in 2024 including The Associated Press, NBC News and The New York Times. The group’s name refers to Alexei A. Navalny, a Russian opposition leader who died in a Russian prison earlier this year.

BBC reported that the videos described by the FBI match those that are part of more than 300 that BBC has found since the start of 2024.

"The videos use convincing graphics and text to look like content from US government agencies as well as more than 50 news organisations — including the BBC, France 24 and Fox News," the BBC wrote. "The videos have been posted online nearly every day for months and have recently focused on the US election, including clips promoting false claims about Harris and messages about unrest and ‘civil war.’"

CheckFirst, an online analytics company based in Finland, told the BBC that it linked the operation to Russia, tracking the network behind the videos to a Russian marketing agency and a Russian IP address. An Internet Protocol address is a numeric designation that identifies a device’s location on the internet.

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If federal officials had arrested groups for rigging mail-in ballots, that information would have eventually appeared publicly in charges filed in federal court. Such news also likely would have been addressed by state and local law enforcement and election officials. Law enforcement disclose voter fraud charges to show that they take such allegations, when they are legitimate, seriously.

The FBI, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Director of National Intelligence have said that Russian actors manufactured  videos about people ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania; falsely depicting individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in Georgia; and stating Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff were paid $500,000 to tip off Sean "Diddy" Combs about a police raid.

"This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans," the federal agencies said, warning that similar efforts will continue through Election Day and beyond.

PolitiFact rated the Pennsylvania claim, the Georgia claim and the Diddy claim Pants on Fire. 

Similarly, we rate the claim that a video shows the FBI reported that "three linked groups have been apprehended for rigging early voting by mail in ballot" Pants on Fire!

UPDATE, Nov. 4, 2024: This story was updated to include a statement from Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, that was received after publication.

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