The US government has formally endorsed former President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran hacked his campaign.
In a joint statement Monday, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Iran was behind efforts to hack the presidential campaigns of both political parties this year.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, particularly in terms of influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” the agencies said in the statement.
“This includes recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC [intelligence community] attributions to Iran,” the statement continued. “The IC believes that the Iranians have used social engineering and other efforts to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activities, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. electoral process. It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have used these tactics not only in the United States during this and previous federal election cycles, but also in other countries around the world.”
Google claimed the same hackers targeted the Biden-Harris campaign before President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign, but it’s not clear whether they were hacked. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign previously said there was no evidence they had been hacked.
The agencies said the FBI is continuing its investigation.
“Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority,” the agencies said. “As the leader of the threat response, the FBI has monitored this activity, interacted with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to prosecute and disrupt the threat actors responsible. We will not tolerate foreign attempts to influence or disrupt our elections, including the targeting of U.S. political campaigns.”
Iran’s UN mission in the US denies that Iran tried to interfere in the election.
“Such allegations are baseless and have no standing whatsoever,” the mission said in a statement. “As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran has neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Should the U.S. government truly believe in the validity of its claims, it should provide us with the relevant evidence, if any, and we will respond accordingly.”
Three U.S. news organizations — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — said this month they had received documents that appeared to have been stolen from the Trump campaign. A campaign spokesman claimed the documents were part of an Iranian “hack-and-leak” operation to harm Trump’s election prospects. Last week, the FBI announced it was investigating attempts to hack both parties.
Google on Wednesday published a detailed report on an Iranian hacking group that it said targeted both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June.
The US has previously accused Iran of the largest election interference operation prior to 2020: an elaborate operation to send intimidating emails to Democrats in Florida, making it appear as if they were being threatened by the Proud Boys, a far-right group that supports Trump.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
