Iranians sent ‘spam emails’ containing stolen material from ex-president not made public Donald TrumpOn Wednesday, his Democratic political opponent said he was campaigning on people with ties to the FBI and two other government agencies.
Officials with the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they have “no information at this time” indicating that recipients associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign responded to emails they denounced as part of government officials. an attempt to “sow discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process”.
There were agencies confirmed last month He said that Iran was behind the attempts to compromise the presidential campaigns of both parties after Trump’s election campaign He accused Iran hacking attempt in June.
Iranian hackers have continued to try to release stolen non-public materials related to the Trump campaign to media organizations since late June, according to a statement on Wednesday that the FBI said was monitoring the activity.
The agencies also warned of increased foreign efforts to interfere in the U.S. election ahead of November, particularly from Russia, Iran and China, “countries that by some measure seek to exacerbate divisions in U.S. society for their own benefit and see election cycles as moments of vulnerability.”
In a statement Wednesday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said the Iranians want to help Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee to replace Biden, “because they know they will reimpose President Trump’s tough sanctions and fight against their reign of terror.” they will stop.”
In letter Truth Social writing On Tuesday, Trump claimed that Harris and his campaign “illegally spied on me.”
Harris campaign spokeswoman Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has been cooperating with law enforcement since learning about the hacking attempt.
“We are not aware of any material sent directly to the Campaign; “several individuals have targeted personal emails in what appears to be spam or phishing attempts,” Finkelstein said in a statement.
Three federal law enforcement sources confirmed the accuracy of the Harris campaign’s statement to NBC News, saying that law enforcement had tracked down information stolen from the Trump campaign and had determined that several people associated with Biden’s campaign had received emails containing the information. The sources added that the recipients never responded to the emails and may not have even opened them because they appeared to be phishing attempts.
Law enforcement contacted those people and the Biden campaign to alert them to the emails, the sources said. The recipients did not call law enforcement to alert them of what they had, but sources said that was not an indication of concealment or wrongdoing, and that employees likely did not understand what was in the emails.
In a report last month, Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks government-sponsored cyberattacks, An Iranian hacker group said In May and June, a phishing operation linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns.
This was reported by NBC News This month, the Justice Department plans to file criminal charges related to the hacking of Trump’s campaign, according to two law enforcement officials. Spokesman of Iran’s UN mission denied country’s role in the operation.
The Ministry of Justice accused the Iranians of interfering in the elections during the last presidential elections. Ministry of Justice in 2021 two Iranians have been charged On a “cyber-active” campaign to intimidate and influence American voters during the 2020 presidential election.
Megan Lebowitz, Ken Dilanian, Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner and Jake Traylor contributed.