FBI Probes Alleged Iranian Hack of Trump Campaign
Facts
- The FBI confirmed Monday that an investigation is underway into claims that sensitive Trump campaign documents were stolen, with hackers reportedly breaching Trump ally Roger Stone's personal email to phish other campaign officials.[1][2]
- Citing people familiar with the matter, the Washington Post reported that the FBI launched the probe in June, suspecting Iran was behind attempts to steal data from a Trump associate and three advisers to the Biden-Harris campaign.[3]
- This comes after Trump alleged last week that the Iranian government had stolen sensitive internal documents after hacking one of its websites but clarified later that hackers were 'only able to get publicly available information.'[4][5]
- Politico also reported to have received a series of internal Trump documents, including a dossier on his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), from an anonymous AOL email account identified only as 'Robert' since July 22.[6][7]
- The Trump campaign added that the selection of its vice presidential nominee coincides with the timing of phishing attacks from an alleged Iranian group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Microsoft reported last Thursday.[8][9]
- The US intelligence community previously alleged that Iran was among 'foreign influence actors' likely to interfere with the 2024 presidential election, reportedly to undermine the Trump campaign. Security sources also warned of an alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump. Iran claims it isn't behind the reported breach.[10][11]
Sources: [1]Associated Press, [2]CNN, [3]Washington Post, [4]Guardian, [5]Al Jazeera, [6]FOX News, [7]Politico, [8]New York Post, [9]Microsoft On the Issues, [10]Independent and [11]BBC News.
Narratives
- Republican narrative, as provided by Wsj. These latest developments have made it clear that Iran is the most active and the primary foreign threat to the US presidential election. Tehran has resorted to sophisticated methods and tactics to sow chaos in America and, above all, to harm Donald Trump.
- Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. Iran may have the motive and means to carry out a hacking attack. However, it's unclear why a state-sponsored effort would leak documents exclusively to Politico. Given that picking Vance was an unpopular move even within the Trump campaign, this could be an internal leak to push for a replacement.
- Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by Tehran Times. These allegations smearing Iran are nothing but disinformation, as Tehran has no involvement in the US presidential election and has never engaged — or planned to take part — in cyber-attacks. The Islamic Republic only has defensive cyber capabilities to foil operations against its infrastructure.