Iran is 'increasingly aggressive' in its operations to target US presidential campaigns: Intel community

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The intelligence community said it has observed "increasingly aggressive Iranian activity" during the 2024 election cycle, involving influence operations targeting the American public and presidential campaigns.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said Monday that Iran "seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions." 

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"Iran has furthermore demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means, including through the use of cyber operations to attempt to gain access to sensitive information related to U.S. elections," the agencies said in a joint-statement. "In addition to these sustained efforts to complicate the ability of any U.S. administration to pursue a foreign policy at odds with Iran’s interests, the IC has previously reported that Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome." 

The intelligence community said it has observed "increasingly aggressive Iranian activity" during the 2024 election cycle, specifically involving "influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns." 

U.S. intelligence officials believe Iran is meddling in the 2024 election. (Getty Images)

"This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the IC attributes to Iran," they said. 

The FBI has been investigating Iranian cyber hacking attempts against Trump’s presidential campaign, after Politico began receiving internal Trump campaign documents. 

The Trump campaign said the documents were obtained "illegally from sources hostile to the United States," who "intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process." 

Iranian hackers broke into the account of a "high ranking official" on Trump’s campaign in June 2024. 

The hack by Iran came "after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy." 

"The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. "Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want."

But the intelligence community said it is "confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties." 

The gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally searched online for details about the November 1963 shooting of US president John F. Kennedy in the days before the attack, the FBI director said. FBI chief Christopher Wray, testifying before a congressional committee, also said the gunman flew a drone over the area where the former president was scheduled to speak about two hours before he took the stage.  (Chris Kleponis / AFP)

"Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new," they said. "Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world." 

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The agencies stressed that "protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority." 

"As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible," they said. "We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns." 

The intelligence community said it is working closely with its public and private sector partners to "share information, bolster security, and identify and disrupt any threats." 

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines arrives for an official State Dinner in honor of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty Images)

"Just as this activity demonstrates the Iranians’ increased intent to exploit our online platforms in support of their objectives, it also demonstrates the need to increase the resilience of those platforms," they said, urging Americans to use strong passwords, official email accounts for official business, updating software, avoiding clicking links or opening attachments from "suspicious emails," and turning on multi-factor authentication.

The 2024 presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris told Fox News it "vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems." 

Iran has long been suspected of running hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran also has long threatened to retaliate against Trump over the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

In its report, Microsoft stated that "foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity."

The analysis continued: "Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran's operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters."

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"Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime — along with the Kremlin — may be equally engaged in election 2024," Microsoft concluded.