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Iranian hackers sent emails containing stolen material from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to people involved in President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign before he dropped out of the race, US agencies said.
The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement that this was part of a broader effort by Tehran to influence the US elections on November 5.
“Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public materials related to former President Trump’s campaign to American media organizations,” the joint statement said.
“This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multi-pronged approach… to sow discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” the US agencies added.
The agencies said there was no information yet on the recipients of the messages, and did not provide further details about the nature of the stolen materials.
In August, the United States accused Iran of launching cyber operations against the campaigns of two U.S. presidential candidates and targeting Americans with influence operations aimed at fueling political discord.
Tehran denies interfering in US affairs.
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York said on Wednesday that the latest accusations from Washington were “baseless and completely unacceptable.”
“Iran has no motive or intention to interfere in the US elections,” she added.
The US intelligence statement said malicious cyber actors sent spam emails to individuals in the Biden campaign in late June and early July containing text snippets of stolen Trump campaign material.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21, and his running mate Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democratic nominee. Polls show Trump and Harris locked in a close race.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that Harris and Biden should disclose whether they used the hacked materials to “harm” the former US president.
Later, Trump said during a rally last night that Iran had hacked his campaign to help Democrats, describing it as foreign interference in the election.
“We are not aware of any materials being sent directly to the campaign,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said after the US agencies’ statement was released. “A small number of individuals were targeted on their personal email accounts with what appears to be spam or a phishing attempt.”
Tehran also says Washington has interfered in its affairs for decades, including a 1953 coup against a prime minister and even the 2020 assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
