US says Iran tried to influence election with messages to Biden camp

(Reuters) -Iranian cyber actors sent emails during the summer to people involved in President Joe Biden’s then re-election campaign containing stolen material from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign as part of efforts to influence the Nov. 5 election, U.S. agencies said on Wednesday.

“Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations,” the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.

The agencies did not provide further details on the nature of the stolen material.

Iran has previously denied interfering in U.S. elections.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

In August, the United States accused Iran of launching cyber operations against the campaigns of both U.S. presidential candidates and targeting the American public with influence operations aimed at fanning political discord.

Malicious cyber actors sent unsolicited emails to individuals in Biden’s campaign in late June and early July that contained an excerpt from stolen material from Trump’s campaign as text in emails, according to Wednesday’s statement.

Biden dropped out of the race for the White House on July 21 and was subsequently replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

In a statement, the Trump campaign said Harris and Biden should disclose whether they used the hacked material “to hurt” President Trump.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement. “A few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt.”

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Kanishka Singh; editing by Diane Craft)