U.S. intelligence officials revealed on Monday that Iran is believed to be behind a recent hack of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
A joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said they believe Iran viewed this year’s presidential election as particularly significant and sought to interfere through hacking and other activities.
The agencies also hinted Iran sought to gain information from the campaigns of President Joe Bien and Vice President Kamala Harris, writing that Iranians attempted to reach individuals “with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.”
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“As each of us has indicated in prior public statements, Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” the agencies said in the joint statement. “Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections.”
tThe statement added, “This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran. The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.”
Earlier this month, a report from Politico detailed how Trump’s campaign experienced a breach of its internal communications.
According to the Trump campaign, the breach reportedly involved the theft of internal communications and documents. The campaign has pointed fingers at “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” suggesting a state-sponsored attack. However, the exact nature and extent of the compromised information remained unclear.
In a statement to Politico at the time, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, ”These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.”
Cheung’s statement to Politico also suggested Iran was behind the attack saying, “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House.”
In Monday’s joint statement, the intelligence agencies said that “protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority. As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible.”
“We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns,” the intelligence agencies added.