US says Iranian hackers sent Trump information to Biden camp

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities on Wednesday accused Iranian hackers of emailing stolen information from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to President Joe Biden’s campaign team, as well as to journalists.

The operation, which occurred over the summer, appeared to be an effort by Iranian hackers to dupe people working for the president’s campaign to act on spearphishing emails. That would have allowed the intruders to get into emails and computer systems — essentially trying to hack the Biden campaign with material hacked from the Trump campaign.

Investigators don’t have any evidence that anyone from Biden’s campaign replied to the emails, according to a notice from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

The emails were sent in June and July, before Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, called Wednesday’s disclosures “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.”

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have imposed sanctions on Iran.

The Harris campaign said in a statement that “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.”

U.S. authorities have escalated efforts to combat foreign influence operations and interference before the November election, with particular focus on Russia, Iran and China.

The allegations revealed Wednesday follow an inquiry by the FBI that became public last month after a report from Microsoft Corp. described efforts by the Iranian government to access email accounts of presidential campaign staff members.

A hacker group with suspected ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Mint Sandstorm is suspected of successfully infiltrating the campaign of Trump, a U.S. law enforcement official said at the time.

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(Bloomberg's Akayla Gardner contributed to this story.)