US intelligence agencies blame Iran for security incident during Trump election campaign

US intelligence agencies accused Iran of being behind attempts to undermine Trump's presidential campaign. Tehran also tried to spy on Biden's campaign team, according to a statement released on Monday.

The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency makes clear what cybersecurity experts and national security officials have been saying for weeks: that Iran is “conducting influence operations against the American public and cyber operations against presidential campaigns.”

“Such activities, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. electoral process,” the statement said. “It is important to note that this approach is not new.”

The statement comes after several cybersecurity companies published reports detailing Iran-related operations, including fake news campaigns and phishing attempts against a senior presidential campaign official. Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center was the first to publicly report on the activities, and further reports linked these incidents to the Trump campaign.

Last week, Google's Threat Analysis Group said hackers with ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had targeted the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns.

A spokesman for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations described Monday's statement by US intelligence agencies as “unfounded and without any basis.”

“As we have previously stated, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention or motive to interfere in the US presidential election,” the spokesman said. “If the US government truly believes in the validity of its claims, it should provide us with the relevant evidence – if there is any – to which we will respond accordingly.”

The allegations that Iran infiltrated the Trump campaign emerged after U.S. news outlets obtained internal campaign documents, prompting the Republican presidential candidate to point the finger at Iran. Little is known about the material that came to light through the campaign's access, and so far none of it appears to have been published by the media outlets to which it was leaked.

No evidence has been released linking the break-in to Iran, but Monday's statement represents the most convincing claim yet that it was an operation orchestrated by Tehran.

Last month, administration officials described Iran as an “agent of chaos” that was more interested in exploiting political and social tensions in the United States than in achieving a particular electoral outcome.

Monday's statement adds urgency to that description and clarifies what intelligence agencies believe Iran's goal is.

“In addition to these ongoing efforts to hamper the ability of a U.S. administration to pursue a foreign policy that conflicts with Iran’s interests, [Intelligence community] has previously reported that Iran views this year's elections as particularly consequential in terms of their potential impact on its national security interests, increasing Tehran's inclination to try to influence the outcome,” the statement said.

You can read the full statement here.

AJ Vicens contributed to this report.