US blames Iran for cyberattack on Trump's campaign
The attacks served to "stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions," the FBI, ODNI and CISA claimed in a statement.
Donald Trump
Several U.S. federal intelligence agencies announced Monday that Iran is responsible for the cyber attack against Donald Trump's presidential campaign that was revealed on Aug. 10.
"We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle," the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a statement.
This "includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the [intelligence community] attributes to Iran," they add.
On Aug. 10, Trump's campaign team claimed to have suffered a cyber attack and accused "foreign sources" of having leaked internal communications and a dossier on JD Vance, the Republican's running mate.
U.S. intelligence further estimated Monday that Tehran sought to contact "individuals with direct access to both parties' presidential campaigns."
"Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions," the FBI, ODNI and CISA claimed in the statement.
On Aug. 12, the United States warned Iran that interfering in its November presidential election has consequences.
It claimed to have "number of tools in our tool belt to hold the Iranian regime accountable" and warned that it "won't hesitate to use them."
"So this is something that we’ve raised for some time ... We’ve raised concerns that Iranian cyber actors have been seeking to influence elections around the world, including those happening in the United States," State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told the press.
In 2016, the Democratic Party's emails were also hacked, in particular those of its candidate, Hillary Clinton, who was then also facing Trump.
Trump was criticized for encouraging the data breach, which was attributed to Russia.
Subsequently, U.S. intelligence services concluded that Russia influenced the 2016 election in favor of Trump, something he denies.
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