Iran is accused of interfering in US election and hacking Trump campaign

The FBI has revealed that Iran attempted to provide Democrats with stolen materials from Donald Trump's campaign, the latest case of foreign interference in the U.S. election.¹ The move is seen as an attempt to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the election and to foment discord in the United States, which serves Iran's security interests.

Iranian agents reportedly hacked into the Trump campaign and attempted to leak internal communications. They also tried unsuccessfully to gain access to the Democratic presidential campaign¹. Several media outlets received stolen information in July but refused to publish it. For example, Politico received emails from an anonymous AOL account that contained a research dossier on Ohio Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate¹.

The FBI said Iranian agents offered information they stole from Trump to people close to the Biden campaign, but there is no evidence that anyone responded to the emails¹. Morgan Finkelstein, a spokeswoman for Kamala Harris' campaign, condemned the foreign interference and said the campaign cooperated with law enforcement after being informed of the malicious activity¹.

Despite a lack of evidence, Trump falsely claimed that the Harris campaign was caught “illegally spying” on him.¹ This claim refers to the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents in the 2016 election.¹

US intelligence agencies believe Iran's goal is to sow discord and undermine public confidence in the election.¹ This is not the first time Iran has been linked to election rigging. Back in 2020, officials uncovered a covert influence campaign aimed at undermining Trump's chances of re-election.¹

*Russia remains the biggest threat*

Although Iran's actions have drawn attention, the U.S. government views Russia as the greatest threat to election integrity¹. The Justice Department recently announced two criminal cases exposing Russia's efforts to influence the election. These cases allege that Russian agents funneled millions of dollars to a Tennessee-based content creation firm to produce pro-Russian videos and create AI-generated content on fake news websites¹. Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco warned of a “more diverse group of actors” threatening the election and acting more aggressively in a polarized environment with disruptive technology.