US Authorities Accuse Iranian Hackers Of Sending Donald Trump Campaign Material Stolen To President Biden's Camp Via Email

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons/Liam Enea)

JAKARTA - Iranian hackers sent emails containing campaign material for former president Donald Trump via email to the incumbent US President Joe Biden, part of Tehran's alleged wider effort to influence the November election, US agencies said.

"Furthermore, bad Iranian cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen and non-public material related to the former President Trump campaign to US media organizations," the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.

"This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran's multi-branch approach to sparking disputes and undermine confidence in our election process," the agencies said.

An evil cyber actor sent unsolicited emails to individuals in Biden's campaign in late June and early July containing text quotes from material stolen from a Republican presidential candidate campaign, the agencies said.

They added that currently there is no information to suggest the recipient retaliated. However, the agencies did not provide further details about the nature of the stolen material.

It is known that President Biden himself chose to resign from the presidential election on July 21, replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a statement, Trump's team said Harris and Biden should reveal whether they were using the hacked material "to hurt" Trump.

The former president later said in a campaign late Wednesday that Iran hacked his campaign to help Democrats, calling it foreign interference in elections.

"We are not aware of any material sent directly to the campaign," campaign spokesman Harris said after a statement from US agencies.

"Some people are targeted by their personal emails with what looks like spam or phishing attempts."

In August, the United States accused Iran of carrying out cyber operations against the two Republican and Democratic candidates, targeting the American public with influence operations aimed at inciting political disputes.

Iran firmly denies interfering in the affairs of the United States, including general elections.

On Wednesday, Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York said the US's latest allegations were "baseless and totally unacceptable."

"Iran has no motive or intention to interfere in US elections," he added.

On the other hand, Tehran, said Washington had been interfering in its affairs for decades from the 1953 coup of prime minister to the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.