WASHINGTON (AP) — Iranian hackers tried to interest President Joe Biden’s campaign in the form of information stolen from rival Donald Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people associated with the then-Democratic nominee. Attempt to intervene 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday.
There was no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media outlets responded themselves Approached with stolen goods It was not published. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran an “unwanted and unacceptable act of maliciousness” that was received by only a few who thought they were spam or phishing attempts.
The emails were obtained before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there is no evidence that the recipients of the emails knew their origin.
The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to address what officials say is Iran’s brazen, election-meddling work. Including hack and league campaign The FBI and other federal agencies contacted Tehran last month.
In recent months, U.S. officials have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to describe efforts by foreign adversaries to influence elections. including the allegation that it was aimed at a covert Russian effort To disseminate pro-Russian content to US audiences.
This is a stark turnaround from the government’s response in 2016Obama administration officials were criticized for not coming out about Russian meddling on Trump’s behalf when he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In this case, the hackers sent emails to people associated with Biden’s campaign in late June and early July. The FBI’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement that the emails “contain a portion of non-public information stolen from former President Trump’s campaign.” .
The agencies said the Trump campaign hack and attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign were part of an effort to undermine voter confidence in the election.
The FBI told Trump aides within 48 hours that Iranian-hacked information had been sent to the Biden campaign, said a senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.
The The Trump campaign released on August 10 He said it had been hacked and that Iranian actors had stolen and distributed key internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — have leaked classified information from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to divulge any details about what they received.
Politico reported that it began receiving emails from the anonymous account on July 22. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — appeared to be a research document that appeared to be campaigning on Republican vice presidential candidate Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump chose Vance as his running mate.
In a statement, Harris campaign spokesman Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.
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“We are not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; A few individuals were targeted with their personal emails through spam or phishing attempts,” Finkelstein said. “We strongly condemn any attempt by foreign actors to interfere in US elections, including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.
Carolyn Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, called the effort to hang stolen information on the Biden campaign to help Harris “further evidence that the Iranians are actively meddling in the election.”
Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s re-election, making him more likely to escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration Ended the nuclear deal with IranAgain the sanctions were ordered Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killedAn act that provoked Iran’s leaders A vow of revenge.
Iran’s intrusion into the Trump campaign was cited as one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials in Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans to secure elections and the attacks they’ve seen so far.
“I think it will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft chairman Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on efforts by U.S. tech companies to protect the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
