Photo: Alamy
Iran is responsible for a recent attack on President Donald Trump’s campaign, according to U.S. intelligence officials on Monday.
The update was shared in a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome. 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,” the statement noted.
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran. The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process,” the statement added.
The intelligence agencies reminded the public that Iran’s efforts to meddle in American politics are not new.
“It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world,” the statement explained.
Trump took to Truth Social to share the news with his followers on Aug. 10, stating that his campaign had been hacked.
“We were just informed by Microsoft Corporation that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government – Never a nice thing to do!” Trump said. “They were only able to get publicly available information but, nevertheless, they shouldn’t be doing anything of this nature.”
“Iran and others will stop at nothing, because our Government is Weak and Ineffective, but it won’t be for long,” he continued. “What Iran doesn’t realize is that I will make the World a better and safer place, and that’s good for them, also!”
As RSBN previously reported, the Iranian government has denied any involvement in the hacking attacks.
“Urgent: representation at the United Nations,” the post stated.
“We deny allegations regarding hacking of the election campaign of presidential candidate Donald Trump,” it added.