Iranian hackers sent information they stole from ex-President Donald Trump’s campaign and sent it to President Joe Biden’s team, the FBI said.
The election interference attempt happened in late June or early July, before Biden ended his reelection bid, according to the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Hackers ‘sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails’, stated the three agencies jointly on Wednesday.
There is no evidence that Biden’s staff responded to the unsolicited inquiries, the officials said.
The news broke as Trump headed to a rally at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. His campaign quickly called on Biden and Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to admit if they accepted and utilized any of the information.
‘This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror,’ stated Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
‘Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump.
‘What did they know and when did they know it?’
The Harris campaign acknowledged that ‘a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt’.
‘We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign,’ Harris campaign national security spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein told CNN.
‘We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in US elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.’
US intelligence officials have said that Iran does not want Trump to win the election and believe he could heighten tensions between Tehran and Washington.
As president, Trump terminated a nuclear deal with Iran, ordered the killing of a general and reinstated sanctions.
The announcement comes as American authorities have used criminal charges and sanctions to expose efforts by foreign adversaries to influence the November election.
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