Thursday, September 19, 2024

FBI: Iranians Sent Biden Campaign Unsolicited Dirt on Trump

Iranian hackers sent people associated with President Joe Biden's campaign unsolicited information that was stolen from former President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday. The announcement is the latest in a series of warnings by federal cybersecurity officials about Iran's efforts to meddle in the upcoming election, including taking specific steps to release information about Trump's campaign.

Posted by tonyroma at 08:32 AM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink

More

Comments

The public warning by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence was issued because "the FBI has learned additional details about Iran's efforts to sow discord and shape the outcome of U.S. elections," the agencies said in a joint statement.

"Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden's campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump's campaign as text in the emails," the agencies said in a statement. "There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied. 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 Justice Department has been preparing charges in that breach, the Associated Press has reported.

Wow, what a difference between campaigns, eh? I remember threads recently about Iranileaks almost as a pun, but this confirms that Iran does not want to see Trump regain the presidency - unless they were playing 4-dimensional chess had Biden decided to use the information and then they'd embarrassingly admit to giving it to him.

At least the hypothetical from 2016 has now become reality. Instead of praising the release of criminally-gotten campaign information and broadcasting it in the worst possible light to hurt his opponent, Joe Biden - even when markedly behind in polls - engaged the FBI and never made use of what he was given.

What a selfless patriotic thing to do. Diamond Joe for the win.

#1 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-09-18 07:35 PM

These people are absolute cretins.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said the announcement by federal authorities "is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror. Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump," Leavitt told USA TODAY. "What did they know and when did they know it?"
If Trump's people had 2 functioning brain cells firing together they should have immediately realized because the FBI has all the information sent to the Biden people, if the campaign had used the information and it couldn't be independently corroborated, they could be charged with crimes as well.

At least Trumpers are consistent. They truly think that everyone else is corrupt as they are. The only thing Kamala Harris has used against Donald Trump is the truth about what he's said and his pathetic record of failures throughout his entire life, but more specifically in allowing Covid to sicken and kill millions more Americans than needed to be.

#2 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-09-18 07:49 PM

I'm old enough to remember when Coke Jr met with a russian spy in trump tower to get campaign dirt from russia against Hilary.

Mueller didn't charge him because he decided Jr wasn't smart enough to know it was against the law (like that would apply to anyone else).

#3 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-09-19 09:25 AM

Of course never one to miss an opportunity to be an over the top drama queen, Dotard issued an all caps post on Troth Social demanding Kamala resign and be replaced by the DNC on the ticket.

What a buffoon.

#4 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-09-19 10:36 AM

What Trump should (but doesn't) understand about the Iran hacking story

If the allegations are accurate, Iran successfully breached the Trump campaign and obtained private information. Iran then offered stolen materials to Democrats; and Democrats ignored the outreach. Law enforcement agencies tracked the stolen information from the Trump campaign and determined that several people linked to Biden's campaign received emails containing the information. The recipients never responded to the emails and may not have even opened them because they appeared to be phishing attempts, the sources added."

The Republican nominee responded to the news in a decidedly Trumpian way.

"WOW, JUST OUT!" the former president wrote in a hysterical screed, published to his social media platform. "THE FBI CAUGHT IRAN SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GIVING ALL OF THE INFORMATION TO THE KAMALA HARRIS CAMPAIGN. THEREFORE SHE AND HER CAMPAIGN WERE ILLEGALLY SPYING ON ME. TO BE KNOWN AS THE IRAN, IRAN, IRAN CASE! WILL KAMALA RESIGN IN DISGRACE FROM POLITICS? WILL THE COMMUNIST LEFT PICK A NEW CANDIDATE TO REPLACE HER?"

In case this weren't quite enough, Trump published a follow-up item soon after, insisting that the vice president is "getting illegal campaign help from Iran."

The GOP nominee apparently sees all of this as some kind of parallel to his Russia scandal, but the comparison quickly falls apart: Team Trump welcomed, received, benefited from, and lied about Russian assistance. Team Harris didn't welcome, receive, benefit from, or lie about Iranian offers of assistance, so the idea that the two are similar is absurd.

Finally, let's not forget that Trump is on record publicly endorsing foreign intervention in American political campaigns. In fact, in June 2019, the then-president spoke to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, who asked an important hypothetical: If foreigners offered Trump campaign officials information ahead of the 2020 election, should they accept the dirt or should they call the FBI?

"I think maybe you do both," Trump replied. "I think you might want to listen, there's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, We have information on your opponent,' oh I think I'd want to hear it."

Trumpy's law of transitive property is quite something, isn't it?

#5 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-09-19 11:55 AM

"in June 2019, the then-president spoke to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, who asked an important hypothetical: If foreigners offered Trump campaign officials information ahead of the 2020 election, should they accept the dirt or should they call the FBI?"

Since Russia helped Trump/GOP in 2016, Republicans wanted to keep their options open:

Asha Rangappa
@AshaRangappa_
There's no evidence that the Biden administration did anything with these emails, but it's a good time to remind everyone that in 2019, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have required campaigns to report foreign election assistance to the FBI

Senate GOP blocks bill to require campaigns report foreign election assistance
06/13/19
thehill.com

#6 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-09-19 04:38 PM

"We love wiki leaks don't we?" Trump 2016

"Russia if you're listening!" Trump July 27, 2016

"I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing" ... Trump 2019

#7 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-09-19 06:25 PM

Drudge Retort Headlines

RFK Jr. Compared Trump to Hitler (27 comments)

Poll: Americans Remain Divided on Key Campaign Promises (25 comments)

Pam Bondi Picked for AG After Gaetz Withdraws (23 comments)

Hegseth's Sex Assault Accuser 'remembers saying no a lot': police (21 comments)

Arkansas Governor Proposes $6.5B Budget with Half Going to School Vouchers (19 comments)

Trump's Hush Money Sentencing is Postponed Indefinitely, judge says (18 comments)

Trump's Sentencing in NYC Postponed Indefinitely (17 comments)

US National Debt Hits a New Record: $36 Trillion (11 comments)

A Trump Judge Just Nixed Overtime Pay for Millions (11 comments)

Google Could Be Forced to Sell Chrome (9 comments)