Iranian hackers sent stolen Trump campaign info to Biden campaign
Iranian hackers sent “unsolicited emails” that included stolen material from Donald Trump’s campaign to his Democratic rivals as the former US President vowed to “win New York”.
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US authorities have revealed Iranian cyberattackers offered “stolen, non-public” material from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to staff for his then White House rival, Joe Biden.
US intelligence and law enforcement agencies said the hackers “sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with US President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former president Trump’s campaign.”
Mr Biden was at the time the Democratic presidential nominee, before dramatically stepping aside in July and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris.
The joint statement from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said none of Biden’s campaign staff replied to the emails.
In August, the same agencies first attributed the hack to Iran, accusing Tehran of seeking to influence the 2024 election. Iran denies the allegations.
“Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities” as Election Day in November approaches, the US statement said, singling out Russia, Iran and China as “trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in US society for their own benefit.”
The US agencies said the Iranian cyberattackers had also attempted to share the information stolen from the Trump campaign with US media organisations. It did not name the outlets.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations vehemently denied the allegations.
“Already devoid of any credibility and legitimacy, such allegations are fundamentally unfounded, and wholly inadmissable,” it said in a statement.
“Iran neither has any motive nor intent to interfere in the U.S. election; and, it therefore categorically repudiates such accusations.”
America goes to the polls on November 5, with both the Trump and Harris campaigns saying they have been targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks.
US-based tech companies have also said they detected such attacks. Mr Trump’s campaign said the plot attributed to Tehran was “proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden”.
Mr Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this was “because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror.”
In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails — blamed on Russians — exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump, who would go on to win that election, was criticised for encouraging the hack.
Harris’s campaign said on August 13 that it too had been targeted by foreign hackers, but did not give an indication of which country was believed to be behind the attempt.
TRUMP VOWS TO ‘WIN’ NEW YORK
Meanwhile, Mr Trump basked in the adulation of thousands of supporters at a Long Island, New York arena insisting that recent attempts to kill him had “hardened my resolve” and predicting he would be the first Republican candidate to win New York State in 40 years.
“These encounters with death have not broken my will,” the Republican presidential nominee, 78, told roughly 16,000 fans at the Nassau Coliseum three days after a gunman was found hiding in the bushes of Mr Trump’s namesake Florida golf course as he played a round.
“They have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission. They’ve only hardened my resolve to use my time on Earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first,” added Trump, whose ear was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a July 13 rally in western Pennsylvania.
“The reason I’m here,” Trump told the roaring crowd, was because “we are going to win New York.”
“That’s the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say it, and we’re going to do it,” Mr Trump said.
“We have to do it. We do it, and the election nationwide is over. We take over the White House and we fix up our country,” the ex-president said to New Yorkers and residents of nearby states.
At least two women got a little too caught up in the moment, flashing their bare breasts at Mr Trump in apparent expressions of affection — with one having to be led away by police after R-rated dancing in the stands.
“We’re gonna have the greatest win in history when we pull this one off. It will be legendary,” the former president predicted.
“I say to the people of New York: With crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump! What the hell do you have to lose?” he said, repeating questions he has asked of black voters and other traditionally Democratic-leaning demographics on the campaign trail.
Mr Trump made similar claims about being on the cusp of winning New York in 2020 before losing to then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden by more than 23 percentage points. “We are going to rescue our Democrat-run states. We are going to start by saving the great state of New York,” Mr Trump said.
‘SUSPICIOUS OCCURRENCE’ NEAR TRUMP RALLY
Police downgraded an incident near Donald Trump’s campaign rally to a ‘suspicious occurrence’ after reports of explosives found in a car.
Nassau County Police Department confirmed there were no explosives after responding to the incident about nine hours before Mr Trump was due to take the stage.
It comes after a police source anonymously told One America News Network that Mr Trump’s campaign rally site on Long Island, New York, was breached and that K9 dogs “found an explosive device in one of the vehicles.”
Nassau County Commissioner of Police Patrick Ryde said they responded to the reports and had detained a person for questioning.
‘There is a person who is being questioned who may have been training a bomb detection dog near the site,” he told The Daily Mail.
“The individual with the bomb dog falsely reported explosives being found and that individual is currently being detained by police.’
A US Secret Service spokesman added to Newsweek that the incident “has no nexus to the rally.”
“We co-ordinate with local, state, and other federal entities for these types of visits,” the spokesman said.
One America News was first to report that a man ran into the woods after driving a suspicious vehicle to the rally site.
“Nassau County Police Department just told me that ‘the perimeter was breached and a blue barrel was removed’ from the area surrounding tonight’s Trump rally site,” Mr Lalino said on X.
“No one saw if he had anything on him, they just saw him take off running. A lot of cars are now parking, they’re lining up on Hempstead Turnpike, just parking on the grass. Even over at Eisenhower Park, they’re just parking over there.”
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IRANIAN HACKERS SENT BIDEN CAMP INFO
Iranian hackers attempted to interest Joe Biden’s campaign in stolen information from Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to Democrats to interfere in the 2024 election.
According to the FBI, there’s no evidence that any recipients responded, which helped prevent the hacked information from surfacing during the crucial final months of the election.
The hackers emailed individuals connected to Biden’s campaign in late June and early July, before he dropped out.
The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a US government statement.
GEORGE CLOONEY’S BOLD OFFER TO TRUMP
George Clooney has made a bold offer to Donald Trump as their political spat continues.
Clooney wrote an op-ed earlier this year in which he begged Joe Biden – then still a candidate – to drop out of the race to give Democrats a fighting chance.
Mr Trump was furious at the piece and penned a scathing Truth Social post telling the Hollywood A-lister to stick to what he’s good at.
But during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Clooney offered a truce to the presidential candidate – on one condition.
“You know what, I will stay out of it (politics) if he does,” Clooney said.
Kimmel took it a step further, asking Clooney, 63, if he’d ever thought about writing another op-ed saying Trump should drop out.
“Have you thought about writing an op-ed in the Times asking him to step down because it worked once, why not try it again?,” Kimmel said.
Clooney replied: “He’s a big fan of mine.”
JOE ROGAN’S SURPRISE VERDICT ON HARRIS
UFC commentator Joe Rogan has praised Vice President Kamala Harris for “nailing it” on the campaign trail, especially for unsettling Donald Trump in last week’s debate.
“Whoever’s helping her, whoever’s coaching her, whoever’s the puppet master running the strings – you’re doing a f*** amazing job,” he said on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
Speaking comedian Tom Segura, Rogan said: “Whatever they’re doing, whoever is writing those speeches … coaching her. She’s nailing it.”
Rogan went on to say: “The difference in that debate was not a difference in who’s going to have better policies, who’s going to be better for the country.
“The difference in the debate, in my opinion, was who was better prepared.”
SECRET SERVICE VOWED TO SECURE SNIPER BUILDING: REPORT
The Secret Service told local law enforcement that they would secure the building where Thomas Crooks shot Donald Trump, according to a bombshell investigation.
“We will take care of it,” agents allegedly told police when asked about the spot where Mr Crooks climbed up to get a clear shot at the former president during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a letter to acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Senator Chuck Grassley asked if there was truth to the claim made by Butler County law enforcement officials and, if so, what the agency did to secure the complex of buildings.
“Butler County law enforcement officials stated that at separate times during the walk-through, when they reiterated their concerns to the agents and counter-sniper about securing the AGR complex buildings, the agents responded: ‘We will take care of it,’” the letter said.
During a Senate hearing, Mr Rowe claimed that “the locals had a plan and that they had been there before”.
The local police, however, maintain that the Secret Service made the commitment to secure the location during a walk-through on July 11, when they raised concerns about the area several times.
A WIN FOR TRUMP: TEAMSTERS WON’T ENDORSE HARRIS
The powerful Teamsters union – which endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 – will not issue an endorsement in the presidential election for the first time since 1996, and for only the second time since 1960.
While Democrats have reliably received their endorsement for years, they were shocked when the union’s General President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Their 1.3 million members who live mostly in key battleground “blue wall” states could have a major impact on the election outcome, with a recent poll of the rank and file showing they highly favour Trump over Kamala Harris.
Mr O’Brien said “neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business.”
“We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries — and to honour our members’ right to strike — but were unable to secure those pledges,” he said.
A WIN FOR HARRIS: US FED CUTS RATES
The US Federal Reserve cut its key lending rate by half a percentage-point in its first reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic, sharply lowering borrowing costs just before November’s presidential election.
The Fed’s decision will affect the rates at which commercial banks lend to consumers and businesses, bringing down the cost of borrowing on everything from mortgages to credit cards.
The news will likely be well-received by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who has looked to highlight President Joe Biden’s economic record in her race against Republican Donald Trump.
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