Secretary Clinton is calling for criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits against American citizens who engage in misinformation and disinformation, saying that foreign actors who mastermind such operations are not likely to see the inside of a courtroom here in America. She says such legal action would be a powerful “deterrent.”

During an appearance on MSNBC on Monday night, Ms. Clinton said disinformation and misinformation are helping to fuel President Trump’s 2024 campaign. 

“I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda, and whether they should be civilly or … criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrent,” she said. “The Russians are unlikely … to ever stand trial in the United States. You know, they’re not going to be going to a country where they can be extradited or even returning to the United States, unless they are very foolish.”

“We need to uncover all of the connections and make it very clear that you can vote however you want, but we are not going to let adversaries … try to influence Americans,” Mrs. Clinton added. 

She also took her criticism directly to President Trump, whom she described as a threat to American democracy. “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is, his danger to our country and the world,” she said. 

Trump’s running mate, Senator Vance, called Mrs. Clinton out for her comments about foreign interference and Trump, calling on Americans to “reject” censorship and violence. 

“Here is Hillary Clinton, calling for civil and criminal penalties for speech she disagrees with. But why stop at jailing your opponents? Hillary is calling for censorship, but she’s really calling for violence,” the senator wrote on X in response to a video of Mrs. Clinton’s remarks. 

The Justice Department has alleged that some prominent Americans were unwitting mouthpieces for such disinformation efforts. On September 4, the Attorney General Garland announced that two employees of the Russian propaganda network RT had been indicted for funneling money to a Tennessee-based conservative media company for the purposes of spreading propaganda to influence the 2024 election. 

Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — both of whom are still at large — orchestrated “a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” according to the Justice Department.

The company, which was not named in the indictment, TENET Media, allegedly paid prominent conservative podcasters to unintentionally spread Russian propaganda at the direction of those Russian agents. Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, and Tim Pool — who combined have more than 6.3 million followers on X and 6 million subscribers on YouTube — were all allegedly paid to provide content for TENET Media, though they have denied knowing anything about the Russian influence operation. 

It is unclear if Mrs. Clinton was speaking indirectly about these three and other influencers paid by TENET. A spokesman for the former secretary of state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

It isn’t just Russia that has been accused of meddling in this year’s election. In February the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a threat assessment claiming that Beijing was trying to sow doubt about American democracy and its leadership for the purposes of interfering with the election.

The New York Times reported that Chinese nationals were creating fake social media accounts to masquerade as supporters of Trump and spread disinformation online, which led Facebook to suspend thousands of accounts on the platform that were believed to be originating from such an influence operation. 

In August, it was disclosed that Iran, too, was trying to meddle in the presidential election. A former advisor to President Trump mistakenly opened a phishing email that allowed Tehran to hack the campaign’s email servers, and the Biden–Harris campaign was subject to a similar effort, though Iran was unsuccessful.