Iran behind Trump campaign hacking, US security agencies confirm
Iran was behind a recent hack targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, after US security agencies cited “aggressive Iranian activity” during the election campaign.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Iran was behind a recent hack targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, US security agencies said, accusing Tehran of seeking to influence the 2024 election.
The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed the Trump campaign claim from earlier this month that it had been targeted, potentially by Iran.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” the security agencies said.
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the (intelligence community) attributes to Iran,” they said.
The United States goes to the polls on November 5, with both Trump’s and rival Kamala Harris’s campaigns saying they had been targeted by cyber attacks in recent weeks. US-based tech companies have also said they detected such attacks.
The US intelligence community was “confident” that Iran had used social engineering and other methods to target individuals in both political campaigns, and that the attempts were “intended to influence the US election process,” Monday’s statement said.
Trump’s campaign said on August 10 that it had been hacked, blaming “foreign sources” for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J.D. Vance.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign implied Iran was behind the move as news outlet Politico reported it had received emails with the campaign material from a source who refused to identify themselves.
NEW TWIST IN TRUMP SENTENCING
New York prosecutors have said they would not oppose Donald Trump’s request to delay sentencing for his hush money conviction, leaving a decision up to the judge who presided over the case.
In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan released on Monday local time, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it will “defer” to the court on the sentencing date.
The 78-year-old former president is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18 for covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged they had a sexual encounter.
Mr Trump’s lawyers last week asked Judge Merchan to push back the Republican presidential nominee’s sentencing until after the November 5 election between Mr Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Todd Blanche, one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, argued that the September 18 date does not allow Trump enough time to potentially appeal the outcome of a separate motion on presidential immunity arising from a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Mr Trump was convicted by a New York jury in May of 34 counts of doctoring business records to cover up payments to Ms Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
In the letter to Judge Merchan, prosecutors said they would “defer to the Court on the appropriate post-trial schedule” that allows time to address the immunity motion “while also pronouncing sentence ‘without unreasonable delay”.
“The People are prepared to appear for sentencing on any future date the Court sets,” they said.
Judge Merchan has already postponed Mr Trump’s sentencing once.
He had been scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 but the judge delayed it after the Supreme Court ruled that an ex-president enjoys some immunity from criminal prosecution.
Mr Trump is the first former president ever convicted of a crime. He has been doing everything in his power to delay multiple trials against him until after the election.
He faces charges in Washington and the state of Georgia related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
HARRIS READY FOR STAR TURN AT DNC
Kamala Harris has arrived in Chicago ahead of her star turn at the Democratic National Convention, perhaps the most pivotal moment yet for her short but stunning election campaign against Donald Trump.
The US Vice President has re-energised the party after an astonishing month that has seen her replace US President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and wipe out Republican rival Mr Trump’s lead in the polls.
A new Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos survey shows Ms Harris with a narrow lead over Mr Trump among registered voters across the country, where one month ago it had Mr Trump and Mr Biden in a dead heat.
On the way to Chicago, Ms Harris stopped in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania — which Mr Trump won in 2016 and Mr Biden in 2020 — and embarked on a day-long bus tour in a bid to keep up the momentum.
Accompanied by her running mate Tim Walz and their respective spouses, they set off from Pittsburgh on a coach emblazoned with their names to a series of rust-belt towns to woo blue-collar voters.
But Ms Harris insisted that Mr Trump was still the favourite to win and that she would campaign hard with just 79 days until the November 5 election.
“I very much consider us the underdog, we have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people,” Ms Harris told reporters in Pennsylvania.
“That’s why we’re on this bus tour today.”
HARRIS TO CAST ELECTION AS ‘FIGHT FOR FUTURE’
Her rapid rise has unsettled Mr Trump, who is resorting to his favoured tactic of personal insults against America’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president.
Earlier, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Mr Trump lashed out at Ms Harris as a “lunatic” and bragged that he was “much better looking” than her.
Ms Harris’s headline convention speech on Thursday, local time, (Friday AEST) will now be a vital opportunity to sell her story to an electorate that is still getting used to the new name at the top of the Democratic ticket.
She is expected to cast the election as a “fight for the future” against a second Trump term, while promising an optimistic vision for Americans struggling with high prices.
Ms Harris is set to join Mr Biden on stage when he addresses the convention — a speech that just a few weeks ago he expected to be giving as the Democratic candidate.
The ageing President is believed to be still fuming over the way Democrats pushed him out, believing he still could have beaten Mr Trump.
But Mr Biden is expected to focus instead on passing the torch and on what he terms the threat to democracy posed by Mr Trump, as he seeks to cement his legacy by helping Ms Harris to victory.
PROTESTS CAST SHADOW OVER CONVENTION
Thousands of protesters are expected to march outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in opposition to the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel — threatening to tarnish US Vice President Kamala Harris’ week-long presidential nomination party.
The New York Post is reporting that a coalition of Arab- and Muslim-American groups are planning two protest marches — the first and largest on Monday at 12pm (2am Tuesday AEST) ahead of US President Joe Biden’s evening appearance and again on Thursday at 5pm (7am Friday AEST) ahead of Ms Harris’ acceptance speech.
“The Democratic Party is the target and not Joe Biden as an individual or Kamala Harris as an individual … She’s just as complicit as Biden is,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, the executive director of the Arab American Action Network who cited her opposition to an arms embargo on Israel as evidence that her attempt to seem more “empathetic” rings hollow.
“If Kamala Harris loses to [former President Donald] Trump, then they have nobody to blame but themselves. This is the Vietnam War of our generation,” he said.
Security has been ramped up as Chicago authorities prepare for protests.
“We are ready,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told US media, adding that his police force was working with the Secret Service and other agencies to ensure a “safe, peaceful, yet vibrant” convention.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said the planned protests would be allowed as long as they remained peaceful.
“If there are troublemakers, they are going to get arrested and they are going to get convicted,” he told CNN.
Protesters will congregate at Chicago’s Union Park — a 10-minute walk from the nearby United Centre that will serve as the main convention venue.
Massive attendance had been expected at protests when Mr Biden was the party’s presumptive nominee — but his decision to step aside on July 21 and endorse Ms Harris has cast some uncertainty over the scale of protests, though organisers say they still expect thousands of participants.
Mr Biden has been denounced as “Genocide Joe” at large and passionate protests – including one in November when thousands of demonstrators painted the White House’s gates red while chanting, “F**k Joe Biden.”
But Ms Harris has been able to address large rallies with few interruptions over the past month — with the exception of Detroit, where protesters interrupted her two weeks ago chanting, “We won’t vote for genocide,” prompting Ms Harris to clap back sternly. “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that,” she said, staring down the protesters.
Ms Harris’ behaviour drew mixed reviews — with some on social media lauding her directness and others saying it was insulting to the communities the activists represent.
“People were very upset with that — because there’s an assumption that protests of the DNC, protests of Biden, protests of Harris mean that somehow our community and the other people protesting are supporting Trump, and that couldn’t be further for the truth,” said Mr Abudayyeh.
Despite the Biden-Harris swap, “there’s really not going to be much of a difference at all,” he predicted.
The protest coalition has been granted a permit to march within sight of the convention’s venue, but has been bogged down by last-minute struggles over whether they’re allowed to use a sound system and portable toilets in the park, and also are seeking a longer march route.
Businesses in downtown Chicago have boarded up their storefronts ahead of the protests.
Similar permitting issues impacted pro-Israel organisers, though the Israeli American Council was granted a permit last week to hold a rally on Wednesday night.
More informal pro-Israel counter-protesting is possible on the other nights as well.
The Republican convention in nearby Milwaukee last month drew just hundreds of protesters upset about the US support for the Israeli invasion following Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people — but Democrats are considered by activists more pliable to pressure.
“We know Trump is not only the biggest pig we’ve ever seen as the president, he might be the biggest pig we’ve ever seen in this entire country,” Mr Abudayyeh said.
Although there’s no indication either are likely, mass arrests of protesters and disruption could take attention away from what Democrats hope will be a show of unity around Ms Harris — who has benefited from a prolonged honeymoon period. She has yet to give a significant media an interview, but answering reporters who yelled questions at her during a campaign stop that she “hoped” to get one confirmed by “the end of the month”.
The convention is expected to honour Mr Biden’s legacy — softening the blow of senior Democrats forcing him to relinquish the nomination last month over concerns about his mental acuity.
One of those senior Democrats, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told Mr Biden he should step aside, said in an interview with the New Yorker she had not spoken to her once close friend since the fall out.
When asked whether her relationship with the US President would survive, Ms Pelosi said: “I hope so, I pray so, I cry so. I lose sleep on it.”
– with AFP
More Coverage
Read related topics:Donald Trump
Join the conversation
Moscow mysteriously shuts all airports
Russia’s aviation watchdog announced the sudden closure of all four Moscow airports due to ‘unspecified security concerns’.
Read more
Major China move shocks the world
The stunning sacking of China’s top military officials has sent shockwaves through the world’s largest military.
Read more