Reuters is reporting that the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election extends to fake documents that suggest Hillary Clinton's campaign might take extreme measures like "staging civil unrest" to ensure she wins.
U.S. intelligence officials have warned privately that the Russian campaign to undermine the credibility of the election could move beyond hacking and leaking Democratic Party e-mails to posting fictional evidence of voter fraud or other disinformation, Reuters said.
The FBI reportedly is reviewing a seven-page electronic memorandum that was posted on Twitter on October 20 by Roger Stone, a Republican operative and former aide to Democrat Clinton's opponent Donald Trump, which carries the logos of the Clinton Foundation and Democratic pollster Joel Benenson's firm, the Benenson Strategy Group.
The memo, titled Salvage Program and identified as "fake" by the Clinton campaign and Clinton Foundation, claims her poll ratings had plunged and called for "severe strategy changes for November" that could include "staged civil unrest" and "radiological attack" with dirty bombs to disrupt the November 8 vote.
It is not clear where the fraudulent document originated or how it started circulating on the Internet.
When he linked to the document on Twitter, Stone wrote: "If this is real: OMG!!"
Stone on November 4 tweeted that he received the document in an e-mail and linked to an article that said the fake document came from the hacking group Anonymous.
Stone called the Reuters story about the document a "witchhunt."
Reuters reported that another fake document -- a letter supposedly written by Democratic Senator Tom Carper -- also suggests that the Democratic Party would go to extreme lengths to ensure it wins the election.
In the letter, which Carper's office identified as fake, the senator writes to Clinton that "we will not let you lose this election," Reuters said.