Hacker tried to give stolen Trump material to Biden campaign, U.S. says
Posted on 09/18/2024
Iranian hackers tried to contact what was then President Joe Biden?s reelection campaign over the summer to disseminate materials they hacked from email accounts associated with Donald Trump?s campaign, the FBI and other U.S. national security agencies said in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon.
?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. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,? the statement read.
Using a pseudonym, the Iranian hackers emailed at least three advisers on the Democratic presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give details that had not been released publicly.
The hackers also contacted a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post and Politico, with documents that the government has alleged were hacked and stolen.
Among the material was research compiled by the Trump campaign on J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and internal polls from the campaign. The material was sent from an AOL account by a man who claimed to be ?Robert" and who promised to send additional material.
The individual told The Post he was not working for the Iranians.
A Trump spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said the hack showed Iran does not want Trump to beat Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee in late July.
?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," Leavitt said.
She called for the Harris campaign to disclose what material they received from the alleged hacker and whether they used it.
The Harris campaign issued its own statement, saying it was not aware of any hacked material being sent to people working on the campaign.
?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," spokeswoman Morgan Finkelstein said. ?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.?
The statement by the FBI and intelligence agencies describes a broader operation by the Iranians to damage the Trump campaign. The activity has continued past June, when the Trump campaign was initially breached, the statement said.
Separately, federal prosecutors last month announced charges in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on American soil on Iran?s behalf ? an investigation that raised safety concerns around Trump and prompted the Secret Service to bolster his security.
The Trump campaign has decried the the hacking effort and urged news organizations to not publish the documents sent by the apparent hackers.
In 2016, Trump repeatedly touted internal Democratic emails and other documents released by WikiLeaks that U.S. officials suspected had been stolen by Russia.
?I love WikiLeaks,? Trump said while campaigning against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in October 2016, after the organization had posted online tens of thousands of emails hacked from the account of Clinton?s campaign chairman.
The Trump campaign has faced a challenging summer between the email hacks and two possible assassination attempts ? one in July and one last weekend. Because of that, campaign advisers describe a tense campaign where there is far more security around the former president and more trepidation at using email.
?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. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,? the statement read.
Using a pseudonym, the Iranian hackers emailed at least three advisers on the Democratic presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give details that had not been released publicly.
The hackers also contacted a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post and Politico, with documents that the government has alleged were hacked and stolen.
Among the material was research compiled by the Trump campaign on J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and internal polls from the campaign. The material was sent from an AOL account by a man who claimed to be ?Robert" and who promised to send additional material.
The individual told The Post he was not working for the Iranians.
A Trump spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said the hack showed Iran does not want Trump to beat Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee in late July.
?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," Leavitt said.
She called for the Harris campaign to disclose what material they received from the alleged hacker and whether they used it.
The Harris campaign issued its own statement, saying it was not aware of any hacked material being sent to people working on the campaign.
?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," spokeswoman Morgan Finkelstein said. ?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.?
The statement by the FBI and intelligence agencies describes a broader operation by the Iranians to damage the Trump campaign. The activity has continued past June, when the Trump campaign was initially breached, the statement said.
Separately, federal prosecutors last month announced charges in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on American soil on Iran?s behalf ? an investigation that raised safety concerns around Trump and prompted the Secret Service to bolster his security.
The Trump campaign has decried the the hacking effort and urged news organizations to not publish the documents sent by the apparent hackers.
In 2016, Trump repeatedly touted internal Democratic emails and other documents released by WikiLeaks that U.S. officials suspected had been stolen by Russia.
?I love WikiLeaks,? Trump said while campaigning against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in October 2016, after the organization had posted online tens of thousands of emails hacked from the account of Clinton?s campaign chairman.
The Trump campaign has faced a challenging summer between the email hacks and two possible assassination attempts ? one in July and one last weekend. Because of that, campaign advisers describe a tense campaign where there is far more security around the former president and more trepidation at using email.
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