Iranian cyber attackers passed “stolen, non-public” material from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to the staff of his then-White House rival Joe Biden, US officials said on Wednesday.
US intelligence and law enforcement agencies said hackers “sent unsolicited emails to individuals associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained a portion of stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign.”
Biden was then the Democratic presidential nominee, but in July he dramatically stepped aside to endorse Kamala Harris for the vice presidential nomination.
A joint statement from the Office of the US National Intelligence Director, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said none of Biden’s campaign staff responded to the email.
In August, the same agencies first blamed the hack on Iran and accused Tehran of trying to influence the 2024 election. Iran has denied these allegations.
The US statement said that “foreign actors are increasing their election-influence activities as we approach Election Day in November”, and specifically accused Russia, Iran, and China of “attempting to exacerbate divisions within American society for their own benefit.”
US agencies said Iranian cyber attackers had also attempted to share information stolen from the Trump campaign with American media organisations. It did not name those outlets.
In August, Iran denied the allegations and its mission to the United Nations challenged Washington to release evidence.
“Such allegations are baseless and have no basis,” the mission said at the time.
“As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran has neither intention nor motive to interfere in the US presidential election.”
The United States is set to vote on November 5, and both the Trump and Harris campaigns say they have been targeted by cyber attacks in recent weeks.
US-based technology companies have also said they have detected such attacks.
Trump’s campaign said Wednesday that the plot hatched by Tehran was “evidence that the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.”
Trump campaign press secretary Caroline Levitt said this was done because “they know President Trump will reinstate their draconian sanctions and stand up against their reign of terror.”
In the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee’s emails — which was blamed on Russia — the party’s internal communications were exposed, including communications about candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump, who later won the election, was criticized for encouraging the hack.
Harris’s campaign said on August 13 that it had also been targeted by foreign hackers but did not indicate which country was believed to be behind the effort.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)