Iranian hackers sent documents “stolen” from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to the Democratic Party, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.
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According to a joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the perpetrators of these cyberattacks “sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign.”
The emails contained “excerpts from stolen and non-public documents from former President Donald Trump’s campaign,” the three agencies added, adding that none of the emails received a response from the Democratic candidate’s campaign team.
In August, the same three agencies had pointed the finger at Iran’s responsibility for the hacking of Donald Trump’s campaign. Iran’s mission to the United Nations had rejected these “baseless allegations.”
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“As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran has neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the US presidential election,” it said in a statement sent to AFP.
“Foreign actors are increasing their influence activities on the November presidential election,” US authorities said on Wednesday, naming Russia, Iran and China, which “are trying to exacerbate divisions in American society for their own benefit.”
According to them, the hackers also tried to leak Donald Trump’s campaign documents to unnamed media outlets.
Donald Trump’s team responded Wednesday by saying that this was “proof that the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, because they know that President Trump will restore his harsh sanctions (against Iran) and stand up to their reign of terror.”
The teams of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, who replaced Joe Biden at short notice after he withdrew his candidacy in July, have claimed to have been victims of cyberattacks in recent weeks, which technology giants such as Microsoft and Google have confirmed.
