Iranian hackers, in a move that has raised significant concerns among U.S. intelligence agencies, disseminated information they had illicitly obtained from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to individuals linked with Joe Biden’s campaign over the summer.
Federal law enforcement officials said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint statement revealing that in late June and early July, Iranian cyber operatives sent unsolicited emails to individuals associated with President Biden’s campaign.
These emails contained excerpts of stolen, non-public material from Trump’s campaign.
The statement emphasized that there was no evidence suggesting that Biden’s campaign staff responded to these emails.
Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, stated that “a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails.” She added, “We have cooperated with the appropriate law enforcement authorities since we were made aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation. We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections, including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.”
A campaign official confirmed that none of the material was used. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign issued a statement urging Harris and Biden to clarify whether they utilized the hacked material, asserting it serves as “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to support the Democratic ticket.
During a rally in New York, Trump alleged, without providing evidence, that Biden was complicit in the hack. “Iran hacked into my campaign. I don’t know what the hell they found. I’d like to find out, couldn’t have been too exciting, but they gave it to the Biden campaign. I can’t believe it – oh yes, I can,” he remarked.
Previously, Iranian hackers had attempted to breach the Biden-Harris campaign, but their efforts were unsuccessful, according to U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts.
The recent activity appears to be a renewed effort by Iran to distribute information stolen from the Trump campaign.
U.S. intelligence officials have identified Iran, along with Russia, as one of the most aggressive foreign actors trying to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Iran has adopted a similar hack-and-leak strategy that Russia employed during the 2016 election to undermine then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. During that election, Trump famously called for Russia to “find” Clinton’s emails.
Subsequently, Russian hackers stole emails from Clinton campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee, which were then published by WikiLeaks, aiming to damage her candidacy.
Earlier in 2024, reports revealed that Iranian government-linked hackers had stolen internal Trump campaign documents and distributed them to news organizations.
The joint statement from law enforcement on Wednesday indicated that these efforts to disseminate information to U.S. media have persisted.
This hack is just one of several attempts by the Iranian government to sow discord and undermine trust in the U.S. electoral process.
According to a report from Politico, beginning on July 22, the outlet received emails containing internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official and a research dossier on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
The New York Times and The Washington Post also received similar information, including a 271-page document on Vance labeled “privileged & confidential” and dated February 23. This document, according to the outlets, was based on publicly available information.
In June, the email account of Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, was breached by Iranian hackers, who then used it to attempt access to the email of a senior Trump campaign official. U.S. officials believe these hackers operate under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian government has consistently denied U.S. allegations of election interference. Concurrently, Russian operatives have been running covert influence campaigns aimed at discrediting Harris’ campaign.
In recent weeks, they have increased their online attacks, disseminating videos that promote “outlandish conspiracy theories” meant to exacerbate U.S. political and racial divisions, as reported by Microsoft researchers.
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, tech executives from Microsoft, Meta, and Google highlighted their ongoing efforts to dismantle fake accounts created by Russian, Iranian, and Chinese operatives.
However, several lawmakers expressed concern that social media platforms were not doing enough to combat foreign disinformation.
Chairman Mark Warner criticized some companies for scaling back their efforts to counter false information from foreign sources, stating, “Too many of the companies have dramatically cut back on their own efforts to prohibit false information.”
Microsoft President Brad Smith captured the gravity of the situation, telling lawmakers, “Every day we know that there is a presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. But this has also become an election of Iran versus Trump, and Russia versus Harris.”
