THE STORY
The FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies announced on Wednesday that Iranian hackers stole information from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and sent them to people who were affiliated with Joe Biden’s campaign over the summer.
“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,” U.S. intelligence agencies said in a statement Wednesday.
“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” investigators said.
In a statement, the Trump campaign said the details show “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.”
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign released a statement of their own on the matter.
“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,” the statement said in part.
GOING IN DEPTH
The Iranian hackers emailed at least three advisers on the Democratic presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. The FBI also found that the Iranian government has “continued their efforts” to send “stolen” campaign materials to media organizations.
Intelligence agencies have assessed Russia, China and Iran as the biggest countries attempting to influence operations in 2024.
Politico reported, it had received emails that contained internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official and a research dossier the campaign had put together on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
The New York Times and The Washington Post later reported they, too, had been sent a similar emails, including a 271-page document on Vance dated February 23 and labeled “privileged & confidential,” that the outlets said was based on publicly available information.
