US intelligence officials said on Monday they were confident that Iran was responsible for the hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, casting the cyber intrusion as part of a brazen and broader effort by Tehran to interfere in American politics and undermine faith in democratic institutions.
Although the Trump campaign and private-sector cybersecurity investigators had previously said Iran was behind the hacking attempts, it was the first time the US government had assigned blame for the attack.
The joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal agencies also indicated that Iran was responsible for attempts to hack Vice-President Kamala Harris’ campaign, saying hackers had “sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaign of both political parties”.
The goal of the hacking and other activities, federal officials said, was not only to sow discord but also to shape the outcome of elections that Iran perceives to be “particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests”.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns,” said the statement, which in addition to the FBI was also released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The statement largely confirms the findings of private companies such as Microsoft, which earlier this month issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in this year’s election, and Google, which separately said an Iranian group linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to US President Joe Biden and Trump since May.
Trump’s campaign said on August 10 that it had been hacked, blaming “foreign sources” for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J.D. Vance.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign implied Iran was behind the move as news outlet Politico reported it had received emails with the campaign material from a source who refused to identify themselves.
Cheung cited a report from Microsoft this week that said Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign”.
The materials received by Politico included research on vetting Vance.
In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails – blamed on Russians – exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump, who would go on to win the election, was criticised for encouraging the hack.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
