Gov. Phil Murphy was deep into his daily recitation of the grim facts of the COVID-19 catastrophe when a fake Homeland Security bulletin flashed across his smartphone.

An alarmed friend had sent it to him. But Murphy quickly concluded that it probably was written by an enemy of the United States.

"This is complete B.S., right?" Murphy said during the recent briefing, after reading a grammatically garbled flyer warning that the National Guard will soon mobilize to prevent looting and rioting amid a pending "national quarantine."

"We have no evidence that anything like that is being considered, but that is intended to get people to panic," Murphy said. "And that’s the last thing we need."

The phony flyer is part of a disturbing wave of disinformation that has marked the tragic COVID crisis, most likely churned out by Russian, Chinese or Iranian troll farms designed to sow confusion and accelerate panic amid the throes of a national emergency.

But officials say hoaxes like these also are a likely dress rehearsal for an expected disinformation wave aimed at wreaking havoc in this fall's presidential election.

Intelligence officials warned Congress in February that Russia planned to target the 2020 election with the goal of reelecting President Donald Trump and boosting the campaign of Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Creative plans for disrupting fall contest

Officials say Russia is planning to launch new and creative ways to evade safeguards put in place since the last election.

Instead of impersonating Americans, like last time, Russian operatives are looking to evade social media restrictions on "inauthentic speech." They are considering attacks made to look like they are coming from the Iranian government. And there is a possibility of launching "ransomware" attacks, which disabled voting systems and state and local government operations last year.

In many ways, it's a sequel of sorts to the Russian-backed interference in the 2016 campaign, outlined last June in special counsel Robert Mueller's report to Congress.

In that report, Mueller described how Russians created a network of fake social media accounts that promoted Trump and sowed discord among voters.

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Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness, says the latest attacks "align" with what was outlined in the Mueller report and that officials are already bracing for a second effort this fall.

"We've seen that, [and] I think we are seeing that right now,'' Maples said in an interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey, speaking broadly and not about any one specific incident. He declined to share details about the origins of the fake quarantine flyer.

"The same troll farms that you saw disseminating misinformation about election campaigns ... they are the ones that are hitting retweet and reply 'like' ... [or] generating posts to get them to be reshared," Maples said.

A nationwide nuisance

New Jersey officials are hardly alone.

New York City officials recently debunked a claim passed around in text messages that the city’s Metro-North trains, connecting commuters from the suburbs to the city, would be shut down and that other train service would be limited. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also shot down claims last month that the state would soon be under quarantine.

And Murphy also paused from his March 15 briefing to recycle a Trump administration alert about fake text messages warning of a pending national quarantine.

The disinformation forces officials to divert precious time debunking theories. The flyer turned out to be an easy one.

More sophomoric than apocalyptic, the flyer was littered with misspellings — declaring at one point that the president will "evoke" federal law for a quarantine — and fantastical claims of the U.S. military teaming up with the National Guard and "1st responders" to keep the calm. Still, it wastes energy that could be better spent deploying ventilators and volunteer nurses.

"It impacts on our ability to respond to the crisis in a measured way that we need to do,'' Maples said.

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'Foreign actors' foment fear

Experts say the long-term goal of these disinformation efforts by "foreign actors" is to erode public confidence in the democratic process. And the nation's fumbling-to-improvisational response to the COVID pandemic has given them an ideal environment to advance their goal.

"They are trying to undercut American's faith that the country works, that public institutions function the way they are supposed to,'' said Paul M. Barrett, deputy director of the Stern Center at New York University and author of a report on likely efforts to disrupt the 2020 election.

Maples also noted that others have exploited the pandemic. He and other intelligence officials have spent time pushing back on Chinese state media propaganda pinning responsibility for the outbreak on the United States and suggesting that it was an attempt by the U.S. to weaken the Chinese economy.

Jihadists have declared "Corona is Trump's weapon,'' according to a bulletin posted on the New Jersey Homeland Security Department website. And white supremacists have gotten in on the act, promoting the theory that stirring panic or chaos will accelerate the "imminent and necessary collapse of society in order to build a racially pure nation."

Maples and Murphy have consistently urged the public to get their information from officially sanctioned sources, such as the state's COVID information hub, and not scour conspiracy-theory-laden websites for cures and updates.

"Please do not feed into the disinformation campaigns of others,'' Murphy implored in front of the television cameras at a briefing in March. "You do not help anyone by spreading rumors."

Trump's missed opportunity

One person who could help send a clear and helpful message is Trump, possibly with an address to the nation.

But that appears unlikely. Trump has used the nationally televised briefings to spar with reporters, deflect criticisms about his management of the crisis and accuse governors of being ungrateful for his administration's help.

"That's a fantasy. It's not going to happen," Barrett said, pointing to Trump's "bizarre affection for Vladimir Putin and his anxiety about people thinking that the Russians helped engineer his [2016] victory."

Trump also blew a chance in February when news leaked that Congress had been briefed about Russia's plans. Instead of seizing the opportunity to warn the public of the coming disinformation waves, the episode got bogged down into another partisan skirmish over process and power.

"So rather than having clarity on these issues, you have the president and his allies in Congress kicking up dust over the issue, making it more confusing than it needs to be,'' Barrett said.

Charlie Stile is New Jersey’s preeminent political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com Twitter: @politicalstile