Iranian hackers sent Biden campaign stolen Trump materials in unsolicited emails, FBI says

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

This summer, Iranian hackers sent materials stolen from the Trump campaign to people associated with the Biden campaign as well as media outlets, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

“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,” according to a joint statement from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), obtained by The Hill.

“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” the agencies 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,” Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement to The Washington Post. “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 Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

At a rally in Long Island, New York, on Wednesday, Trump accused Joe Biden of “working with Iran.”

“They gave them all of their materials because Biden is working with Iran, and Iran doesn’t exactly like me,” Trump said.

The Trump campaign condemned the hack.

“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,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to The Independent. “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?”

The Iranian government has denied it hacked the Trump campaign.

Last month, the Trump campaign said some of its internal communications had been hacked after Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account that included internal campaign documents.

The campaign pointed to a Microsoft report that suggested Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”

The FBI is reportedly preparing criminal charges in connection with the hack, the Associated Press reported last week.

The hack comes as foreign powers are allegedly stepping up attempts to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

A report from Microsoft earlier this week alleged that Kremlin-aligned troll farms spread false news stories to damage the Kamala Harris campaign.

The Independent has contacted the Russian Embassy in the U.S. for coment.

Earlier this month, law enforcement agencies seized 32 Russian-backed websites prosecutors say were designed to sow disinformation and discord ahead of 2024 elections and boost Donald Trump’s campaign.

Two employees of Russia’s state RT network were also charged with launching $10m propaganda campaign enlisting popular right-wing social media influencers.

September also saw federal officials indict Dimitri Simes, a foreign policy expert and former Trump campaign adviser, for allegedly breaking sanctions by working with a Russian state TV channel. He denies wrongdoing.