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Iranian hackers sent stolen Trump campaign information to Biden campaign
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Iranian hackers sent stolen Trump campaign information to Biden campaign



CNN

Iranian hackers sent unsolicited information stolen from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to people with ties to Joe Biden’s campaign over the summer, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement that malicious Iranian cyber actors “sent unsolicited emails to individuals then affiliated with President Biden’s campaign. These emails included an excerpt from stolen, non-public materials from former President Trump’s campaign embedded in the text of the emails.”

There is no indication that Biden’s aides ever responded, the statement said.

A spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said “a few individuals were targeted with personal emails.”

“We have been cooperating with appropriate law enforcement agencies since we became aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation,” said Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokesman for the Harris campaign.

“We are not aware of any material sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what appeared to be a spam or phishing attempt. We strongly condemn any attempt by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections, including this unwanted and unacceptable malicious activity.”

Trump’s campaign said in a statement that Harris and Biden “must be honest about whether they used the hacked material,” claiming it is “further evidence that the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help the Democratic ticket.

CNN previously reported that Iranian government-backed hackers stole internal Trump campaign documents and shared them with news organizations. The law enforcement statement Wednesday said the hackers’ efforts to send information to U.S. media outlets have continued.

The hack is one of several efforts by the Iranian government to “stir up discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” the statement said. Law enforcement officials have previously said those efforts included a failed attempt to hack the Biden-Harris campaign.

Politico reported that it had obtained emails dating back to July 22 containing internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official and an investigative dossier the campaign had compiled on Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.

The New York Times and The Washington Post later reported that they too had received a similar cache, including a 271-page document about Vance, dated February 23 and marked “privileged and confidential,” which the media said was based on publicly available information.

Iranian hackers hacked into the email account of Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone in June to target campaign workers, CNN reported. U.S. officials believe the hackers are working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Investigators believe suspected Iranian hackers hacked Stone’s account and then used that email account to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a sustained effort to gain access to campaign networks.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.