Iran attempted to pass hacked Trump campaign info to Biden campaign
The FBI and other intelligence agencies revealed Wednesday that Iran attempted to share information stolen during its hack on the Trump campaign with the Biden campaign and continues to send material to various media outlets.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” the agency wrote in a joint statement alongside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied.”
The Harris campaign condemned the sharing of Trump campaign data but said what appeared to be phishing emails sent by Iran to staffs’ personal emails were ignored.
“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,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement.
“We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.”
Despite assurances from the intelligence community that no one from the Biden-Harris team responded to the emails, the Trump campaign raised the specter that their rivals may have used the information.
“This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror. Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump. What did they know and when did they know it?,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
That battle also played out in the House Intelligence Committee, where Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) similarly fired off a series of questions, asking “what did they do” with the information.
Meanwhile, ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) noted that Trump previously called for Russia to hack the Clinton campaign, suggesting he “should sit this one out.”
“The statement released today by ODNI and FBI makes clear that there is no evidence that anyone affiliated with the Biden campaign responded to the online actor who dangled illegally obtained emails, an online actor that we now know is an Iranian cutout,” Himes said.
“Thankfully, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden understand that foreign interference in our elections is unacceptable no matter who it helps or hurts.”
The alert also said Iran has “continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations.”
The statement does not indicate whether any of that information has surfaced publicly, but called the episode “the latest example of Iran’s multi-pronged approach … to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process.”
Iran has denied being involved in hacking the campaign, and said Wednesday that it “does not engage in the internal uproars or electoral controversies of the United States.”
“Having already unequivocally and repeatedly announced, Iran neither has any motive nor intent to interfere in the U.S. election; and, it therefore categorically repudiates such accusations. Should the U.S. government genuinely seek the truth, it is incumbent upon them to formally and transparently provide their substantiated evidence, so as to receive a corresponding and precise response,” Ali Karimi Magham, spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement.
The Trump campaign was hacked earlier this summer, but the issue did not become public until August, when the Trump team was contacted by reporters who had been approached by a man claiming to be named Robert who said he had internal campaign documents.
Trump ally Roger Stone was among the Iranian hacking targets, as was Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
The FBI has indicated Iran similarly had attempted to hack the Democratic campaign — which, at the time, was supporting a ticket of President Biden and Vice President Harris — but was unsuccessful in doing so.
In a recent call with reporters, the ODNI said intelligence indicates Iran has accelerated its efforts to influence the U.S. election, both funneling disinformation into social media and seeking to further divide Americans.
Those efforts come alongside campaigns of increasing intensity from both Russia and China.
The U.S. in recent weeks has taken action against various Russian influence tactics, seizing 32 web domains it was using to spread disinformation and indicting two employees of RT, formerly Russia Today, who worked with Tenet Media to contact various right-wing social media influencers to push narratives supported by Russia.
Both the Post and NBC have reported that the U.S. in coming days plans to file charges in relation to Iranian hacking.
Updated at 8:34 p.m. EDT