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    • Accused Iranian hackers successfully sold Trump’s stolen emails
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    Accused Iranian hackers successfully sold Trump’s stolen emails

    Harry Posted on

    Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter, Gram Slattery
    | Reuters

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    WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The accused Iranian hacking group that compromised Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign emails has finally achieved some success in publishing its stolen materials after initially failing to attract mainstream media attention.

    In recent weeks, hackers began selling Trump’s emails to a Democratic political operative and independent journalists who published numerous materials on the website of his political action committee American Muckrakers; at least one of them posted them on Google. writing platform Substack. The latest material shows communications in which the Trump campaign discussed a range of issues with outside advisers and other allies leading up to the 2024 election.

    The hackers’ activities tracked by Reuters provide a rare glimpse into the operations of election interference efforts. They also show that Iran is determined to meddle in the election, despite the US Justice Department’s indictment in September accuses Those who leaked that they were working for Tehran and using fake IDs.

    The indictment alleges that a hacking group affiliated with the Iranian government Mint Sandstorm or APT42Between May and June, he compromised multiple Trump campaign employees by stealing their passwords. In a Homeland Security advisory issued earlier this month, the agency warned that hackers continued to target campaign staff. If convicted, they face prison time and fines.

    Those who leaked the Justice Department indictment were identified as three Iranian hackers who worked with Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, whose volunteer members helped enforce the regime’s strict rules and expand its influence. Attempts to reach the hackers named in the indictment via e-mail and text message were unsuccessful.

    The leakers, who collectively used the fake “Robert” persona, did not directly address the U.S. allegations in interviews with Reuters, with one of them saying, “You really expect me to answer?!” he said.

    “Robert” is the same fake persona named in the U.S. indictment, according to FBI emails sent to reporters and reviewed by Reuters.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement that reports that the country was involved in hacking of the US elections were “fundamentally unfounded and completely unacceptable”, adding that it “categorically rejects such accusations”. The FBI, which is investigating Iranian hacking of both presidential campaigns in this election, declined to comment.

    David Wheeler, founder of American Muckrakers, said that the documents he shared are real and in the public interest. Wheeler said his goal was to “expose how desperate the Trump campaign is trying to win” and provide factual information to the public. He declined to discuss the origin of the material.

    Without making any specific references, Trump’s campaign team said earlier this month that the goal of Iran’s hacking operation was “to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos in our democratic process,” adding that journalists reprinting stolen documents were “doing the orders of America’s enemies.” . .”

    Trump in 2016 took a different position When he encouraged Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and release them to the press.

    leak operation

    The leak operation began around July, when an anonymous email account [email protected]He began communicating with reporters at various media outlets using the name Robert, two people familiar with the matter said. They first contacted Politico, the Washington Post and the New York Times, promising damning inside information about Trump’s campaign.

    In early September, the accused Iranian hackers used a second email address. [email protected]A new round of bidding also included Reuters and at least two other news organizations, two people familiar with the matter said.

    At the time, they presented research compiled by the Trump campaign with publicly available information on Republican politicians J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and Doug Burgum, all of whom are being considered as Trump’s running mates.

    A person familiar with the Trump campaign told Reuters that the vice president’s reports were factual. Neither Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times, nor Reuters published stories based on these reports.

    New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said the paper only publishes articles based on hacked materials “if we find newsworthy information in the materials and can verify it.”

    In an email, the Washington Post told Reuters the episode reflected the fact that news organizations “will not oppose any hack” presented to them, citing past comments by editor-in-chief Matt Murray. A spokesperson for Politico said the source of the documents was more newsworthy than the leaked material. A spokesman said Reuters did not publish the material because the news agency did not consider it newsworthy.

    Both AOL email accounts identified by Reuters were taken offline in September by owner Yahoo, which worked with the FBI to trace them to the Iranian hacker group ahead of the indictment, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Yahoo did not respond to a request for comment.

    Before losing email access, Robert told reporters they might need an alternative contact and offered a phone number through the encrypted chat app Signal. Signal, which is more difficult to monitor by law enforcement, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

    Some senior U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have said Iran’s interference efforts this election season are focused on smearing Trump because they blame him for the 2020 American drone assassination of former Iranian military general Qasem Soleimani.

    So far, previously released leaks do not appear to have changed the public dynamics of the Trump campaign.

    traitors

    On September 26, North Carolina-based American Muckrakers began publishing Trump’s campaign emails. The PAC, which has been active since 2021, has a history of publishing unflattering material about high-profile Republicans. Accordingly public disclosure reportsIt is funded through individual, small-dollar donors from around the country.

    American Muckrakers said on its website that the leaks came from “a source,” but ahead of last month’s release, the group asked Robert to reach out publicly. “HACKER ROBERT, WHY DO YOU CONTINUE SENDING TRUMP INFORMATION TO CORPORATE MEDIA?” he said in a post to group X: “Send it to us and we’ll put it out.”

    When asked if his source was the alleged Iranian Robert, Wheeler said “that is confidential” and that he “does not have any confirmation of the source’s location.” He also declined to comment on whether the FBI warned him that the communications were the product of a foreign influence operation.

    In one example, Muckrakers met with former Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on October 4. and released material showing an unspecified financial settlement with lawyers representing Trump. RFK Jr.’s lawyer, Scott Street, said in an email to Reuters that he could not speak publicly about the incident. Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the material.

    Muckrakers later released Robert’s documents related to two high-profile races. It included alleged campaign communications about North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson and Florida Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna, both of whom are backed by Trump.

    The exchange about Robinson concerned an attempt by Republican consultant W. Kirk Bell to seek guidance from the Trump camp following the scandal over comments attributed to Robinson in a pornographic forum. Robinson has previously denied these comments. The other message came from a Republican consultant who shared information about Luna’s personal life with the campaign.

    Robinson and Luna’s campaigns did not respond to messages seeking comment.

    One of the few journalists contacted by Robert who published material was independent national security reporter Ken Klippenstein, who posted his vice presidential investigative documents to Substack late last month. Robert confirmed to Reuters that they gave the material to Klippenstein.

    Substack did not respond to a question about its policies regarding hacked material.

    After the story, Klippenstein said FBI agents contacted him about his communications with Robert and warned them that they were part of a “foreign malicious influence operation.” Klippenstein said in a post that the material was newsworthy and that he chose to publish it because he believed the news media should not be “the gatekeepers of what the public needs to know.”

    “We cannot comment on our interactions (if any) with law enforcement,” said a spokesman for Reuters, which has received similar communications from the FBI. An FBI spokesman declined to comment on efforts to brief the media.

    Wheeler said there would be new leaks “soon” and that he would continue to release similar documents as long as they were “authentic and relevant.”

    (Reporting by Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter and Gram Slattery; Editing by Chris Sanders and Anna Driver)

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