Trump campaign goes on offense over Iran effort to share hacked materials

Former President Trump is going on offense over the news that Iran sought to share information it hacked from his presidential campaign with President Biden’s campaign.

The FBI and other intelligence agencies announced Wednesday that after Iran’s June hacking of the Trump campaign, it unsuccessfully attempted to entice the then-Biden-Harris campaign with the information.

The agencies made clear there is “no evidence” anyone from the campaign responded to the unsolicited emails, which included only “an excerpt” from materials stolen from the Trump campaign.

Nonetheless, in the hours since the intelligence community shared the revelation the Trump campaign has seized on the episode, arguing it shows Iran favors the Democratic nominee and suggesting his opponent should be prosecuted by calling for a grand jury in the incident.

The Trump campaign put out a statement Wednesday evening calling the FBI’s statement “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror.”

But Trump escalated his rhetoric about the incident later that evening on social media, accusing the Harris campaign without evidence of “illegally spying on me.” 

And in a social media post Thursday morning, Trump called for Harris and her campaign to go before a grand jury on the matter.

“My campaign went through hell on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” Trump posted, referring to the special counsel probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. “The big difference is that the Iran/Kamala campaign corruption case is real!”

A Harris campaign official said point-blank Thursday that “the materials were not used,” while the campaign’s Wednesday night statement said staffers who were sent the materials dismissed them as a spear phishing attempt and were not aware the emails had any ties to Iran.

“We have cooperated with the appropriate law enforcement authorities since we were made aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation. We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement.

“We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.” 

That was in line with a statement from the FBI and other intelligence outlets.

“Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” the agencies said.

Other Republicans have echoed the Trump campaign’s line of questioning, holding back from framing them as an accusation but nonetheless raising the specter of wrongdoing.

“Iran sent President Biden and Vice President Harris information by hacking the Trump campaign. What did they do with Iran’s espionage? Did they contact law enforcement? Is the Biden-Harris Administration colluding with Iran?” House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in a statement Wednesday night.

That prompted a response from his ranking member, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) who noted that Trump had previously called for Russia to hack the Clinton campaign and suggested he “sit this one out.”

“The statement released today by ODNI and FBI makes clear that there is no evidence that anyone affiliated with the Biden campaign responded to the online actor who dangled illegally obtained emails, an online actor that we now know is an Iranian cutout,” Himes said.

“Thankfully, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden understand that foreign interference in our elections is unacceptable no matter who it helps or hurts.” 

News outlets have largely refrained from publishing or reporting extensively on the hacked materials, though the FBI statement notes Iran has continued to send items to various news outlets.

It is a notable difference from 2016, when Russia hacked Democratic campaign emails that were then published by WikiLeaks.

The discrepancy in coverage has drawn criticism from many Democrats, who view it as a double standard and have suggested the media is protecting the Trump campaign after extensively covering internal communications of the Clinton campaign.

Efforts by foreign powers to influence or interfere in U.S. elections are not new, but there has been an increased focus on the matter in recent weeks as the campaign between Trump and Harris heats up.

The Justice Department earlier this month seized web domains and targeted two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a Russian state media outlet with content available in English, charging the duo with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment accuses the two of partnering with a conservative-leaning media company to hire influencers with millions of followers to promote Russian-aligned narratives.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said Wednesday in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the campaign had become an election of “Iran versus Trump and Russia versus Harris.”

“And it is an election where Russia, Iran and China are united with a common interest in discrediting democracy in the eyes of our own voters and, even more so, in the eyes of the world,” Smith told lawmakers.