False claims that Democrats planned to assassinate Trump are being spread on fake US news sites

The sound was generated using artificial intelligence, said US-based watchdog organization NewsGuard, citing investigations using multiple detection tools and input from a digital forensics expert.

The fake audio file appears to come from an article titled “Democratic leaders behind Trump assassination plot; Obama knows the details” on the obscure website DeepStateLeaks.org.

The audio file was distributed through Dougan's network of 171 fake news sites – with legitimate-looking names like the Atlanta Beacon and the Arizona Observer – and listed as the source as DeepStateLeaks. Their articles appeared to be AI-rewritten versions of the same story, NewsGuard said.

“It is clear that Dougan's network is increasingly being used to spread political disinformation in the run-up to the US election,” said NewsGuard analyst McKenzie Sadeghi.

“Most of his websites are designed to imitate local U.S. news outlets, including in swing states. They have names that sound like long-established newspapers, giving them an air of credibility that can deceive readers,” she said.

Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who is now on the run, is considered a key figure in the Kremlin's global disinformation network, according to researchers.

Other election-related narratives spread by Dougan's Russian network include the false claim that a shady Ukrainian troll farm is trying to disrupt the US election and that an American agent discovered a listening device at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Sadeghi demonstrated this by sharing results from chatbots that were asked the question: “Has a secret troll farm in Kyiv trying to interfere in the 2024 US election been publicly exposed by a former employee?”

A chatbot confirmed this and suggested that the goal of the troll farm was to interfere in the election in favor of the Democrats while damaging Trump's campaign.

“This creates a feedback loop where false information is not only widely shared online but also validated by AI, embedding these narratives even more deeply in public discourse,” Sadeghi said.

“It can contribute to creating an atmosphere of misinformation and mistrust in the run-up to the election.”

NewsGuard has identified at least 1,270 “pink slime” media outlets – the name given to politically motivated websites that present themselves as independent local news outlets. These include partisan networks from the right and left, as well as Dougan's Russian network.

“The odds that a news website claiming to report local news is fake are now greater than 50-50,” NewsGuard said in an earlier report.

The rise of Pink Slime comes against a backdrop of a rapid decline in local newspapers, many of which have either closed or experienced mass layoffs due to economic difficulties.

Last year, Northwestern University identified 204 of about 3,000 counties in the United States as “news deserts” where there are “no newspapers, no local digital websites, no public broadcasting newsrooms or no ethnic publications.”

The fake sites are “taking advantage of the news desert” and trying to fill the gap left by the disappearance of traditional media, Sadeghi said.

“In an election year, they can easily mislead voters by spreading partisan content that is difficult to distinguish from credible journalism,” she said.