Iranian Hackers Target Biden Campaign with Trump Campaign \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ Iranian hackers attempted to involve Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign by offering stolen information from Donald Trump’s campaign, according to the FBI and other federal agencies. The hackers sent unsolicited emails in June and July, but officials confirmed that there’s no evidence anyone from the Biden campaign responded. The emails were part of Iran’s ongoing efforts to interfere with the U.S. election.
Iranian Hackers Target Biden Campaign with Trump Campaign Data: Quick Looks
- Election interference attempt: Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails to Biden campaign associates, offering stolen Trump campaign data.
- Stolen Trump data: The emails contained non-public material from the Trump campaign, part of a hack-and-leak operation tied to Iran.
- No response: No one from Biden’s team engaged with the hackers, and the stolen information has not surfaced publicly.
- U.S. agencies’ warning: The FBI, CISA, and other agencies called out Iran’s efforts to undermine the 2024 election, linking the campaign to stoking discord and mistrust among voters.
Deep Look
In an ongoing campaign of election interference, Iranian hackers sought to infiltrate the 2024 U.S. presidential election by targeting President Joe Biden’s campaign with stolen data from Donald Trump’s campaign, the FBI and other federal agencies revealed on Wednesday. The hackers sent emails containing non-public information from the Trump campaign, aiming to lure people connected to Biden with promises of damaging material against the Republican frontrunner.
Hackers’ Emails to Biden’s Campaign
The emails, sent in late June and early July, reached out to individuals associated with Biden’s campaign before his withdrawal from the race. These emails contained text from stolen internal material belonging to Trump’s campaign. The material was obtained by hackers linked to Tehran in a larger effort to manipulate the election process.
Although the hackers succeeded in delivering the emails, no evidence suggests that Biden’s campaign responded or engaged with the information. This prevented the hacked data from becoming public in the final, crucial months of the 2024 election cycle.
FBI and U.S. Government’s Response
The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have closely monitored the activity of these Iranian actors. In their joint statement, officials revealed that the emails are part of a broader hack-and-leak campaign, which aims to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process.
According to officials, the purpose behind the Iranian interference campaign is to stoke discord among voters and cast doubt on the integrity of the upcoming election. While Iran has interfered in U.S. elections in the past, the 2024 cycle has seen an increase in cyberattacks aimed at disrupting both Biden’s and Trump’s campaigns.
Hack of Trump Campaign and Media Involvement
The Trump campaign disclosed on August 10 that it had been hacked and that Iranian hackers had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three prominent media outlets—Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—received the leaked material. However, none of these outlets have disclosed the specific contents they received.
Politico reported that on July 22, it began receiving emails from an anonymous AOL account identified only as “Robert.” The emails contained what appeared to be a research dossier on Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who was later selected as Trump’s running mate in 2024. The document sent to Politico was dated months before Trump’s official announcement of Vance as his vice-presidential candidate.
Ongoing Legal and Cybersecurity Efforts
The Justice Department has been preparing charges related to the breach of Trump’s campaign data. Meanwhile, U.S. agencies have been working to contain the fallout from this attempt to manipulate the election process. The FBI has warned that the hack-and-leak operations, similar to those carried out by Russia in 2016, pose a serious threat to the integrity of the election.
In response to the hacking attempts, Morgan Finkelstein, spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign, said that the Biden-Harris team has cooperated with law enforcement since the emails targeting individuals associated with the campaign surfaced. Finkelstein confirmed that while the campaign itself did not receive these emails, several Biden-linked individuals were targeted on their personal email accounts.
Iranian Influence Campaign and Broader Election Interference
The Iranian interference effort is just one of many foreign attempts to disrupt the 2024 election, with agencies warning of cyberattacks coming from multiple countries. The goal of these campaigns, according to U.S. officials, is to undermine voter confidence in the democratic process by sowing distrust and discord among the American electorate.
Iran’s involvement in election interference has evolved over the past several years, with the country previously linked to disinformation campaigns, including attempts to intimidate U.S. voters in 2020. As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue, the use of cyberattacks and disinformation is seen as a way for Iran to project influence without direct conflict.
