WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday vowed to crack down on the Russian government’s attempts to influence the upcoming 2024 election by using secret networks to spread disinformation to American voters.

The Biden administration has been publicly warning for months about attempts to influence Americans with disinformation and propaganda aimed at sowing distrust in the election.

At a briefing Wednesday at the Justice Department, Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted both domestic and foreign instances of voter influence attempts, as well as widespread and growing threats to election officials.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate an authoritarian regime that seeks to exploit the free exchange of ideas in our country to covertly advance its own propaganda. Our investigation into this matter is ongoing,” Garland said.

The Justice Department has charged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct the Tennessee-based company to publish and distribute content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”

To do so, the prosecutor general said two employees — 31-year-old Kostyantyn Kalashnikov, also known as Kostya, and 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva — allegedly ordered the company to strike a deal with social media influencers to boost Russian propaganda.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers or their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government. Instead, the defendants and the company claimed the company was funded by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious person,” Garland said.

Officials say Russian entities also created fake websites that allegedly aim to exert greater influence on the election.

“RT used individuals living and working in the U.S. to facilitate deals with American media figures to create and disseminate Russian propaganda here. The content was presented as legitimate, independent news, when in fact much of it was created in Russia by RT employees working for the Russian government,” Wray said. “The second operation exposes even more malicious activity by companies operating under the direction and control of the Russian government, companies that created media websites to deceive Americans and unknowingly consume Russian propaganda.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said authorities will continue to investigate election threats without fear or bias.

“Russia remains the dominant foreign threat to our elections, and as the intelligence community has publicly reported, and I have warned before, Iran is also accelerating its efforts to influence our elections, including the presidential election,” Monaco said.

Wray also delivered a direct message to Iran and China when asked what the office’s response would be to those seeking to interfere in the presidential election: “Stop.”

The prosecutor general said that Russia is using new techniques such as artificial intelligence and other cyber techniques.

“They are now using bot farms in ways that were not possible before, and so it is a bigger threat than ever before. I would simply say that (this) The reality is that Russia has been interfering in our society and trying to sow discord for decades,” Garland said.

The Justice Department also announced it is targeting a Russian disinformation campaign dubbed “Doppelganger.”

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The Justice Department has seized 32 internet domains it says were used by the Russian government and government-sponsored entities to allegedly engage in the Doppelganger influence campaign by spreading propaganda aimed at reducing international support for Ukraine, strengthening support for pro-Russian policies and influencing American voters, according to newly unsealed court documents.

Garland on Wednesday also highlighted internal efforts to intimidate election officials across the country.

As reported by the Attorney General, since March the Electoral Threat Team has participated in more than 25 activities, trainings and simulation exercises, both with partners from law enforcement and the electoral community.

Garland said task force representatives will be meeting in the field with election workers over the next several weeks, and in early November, before and after Election Day, the FBI will host federal officials at its command center to discuss election-related events, issues and potential crimes as they happen.

“Election officials and administrators do not have to face these threats alone,” he added.

CNN was the first to report on the expected law enforcement actions.

In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined steps the State Department said it is taking to “counter malign actions by Kremlin-backed media outlets that seek to influence or interfere in the 2024 U.S. elections.”

These measures include introducing a new visa restriction policy to punish opponents, designating RT’s parent company and its subsidiaries as entities controlled by a foreign government, and offering cash rewards for information on the Russian intelligence-linked hacking group RaHDit under the “Rewards for Justice” program.

“Today’s announcement underscores the lengths to which some foreign governments have gone to undermine American democratic institutions. But those foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors deliberately interfering in and undermining free and fair elections,” Blinken said.

Additionally, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Wednesday it was designating 10 individuals — including several RT employees — and two entities as part of the U.S. response to “Moscow’s malign actions to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”

The Treasury Department said in a statement that Wednesday’s sanctions also included the head of the hacktivist group RaHDit and two of his associates.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.