The email account of longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone was breached as part of suspected hacking attempts from Iran targeting Trump’s campaign, according to reports.
The self-proclaimed GOP “agent provocateur”—whose dirty tricks can be traced back to the Nixon campaign—was duped by an espionage unit.
The hackers then used Stone’s account in an effort to get into another account belonging to a senior Trump campaign official, a source told CNN. That attempt was part of wider efforts to breach campaign networks which are now being investigated by the FBI.
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The hacking incident in June was spotted by Microsoft and the FBI, which in turn informed Stone that a “Foreign State Actor” had compromised his account, according to CNN. A source told the network that Stone was informed his account was breached so that it could be used to send a link to officials in the Trump campaign which, if clicked, would allow the hackers to access the recipient’s computer.
“I was informed by the authorities that a couple of my personal email accounts have been compromised,” Stone told The Washington Post. “I really don’t know more about it. And I’m cooperating. It’s all very strange.”
Stone was convicted of seven felony charges in November 2019, including for lying about his attempts to obtain information from WikiLeaks about Hillary Clinton’s emails stolen by Russian hackers and released on the eve of the 2016 election. Trump then pardoned Stone just before leaving the White House in 2020.
Democrats also appear to have been targeted in recent hacking attempts, with the FBI briefing the Biden-Harris campaign in June about Iranian hackers attempting to breach their campaign, according to CNN. Three staffers on the campaign received spear-phishing emails which could give a hacker access to their communications, according to the Post, but investigators have not yet found evidence that those attacks succeeded.
“Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems,” a Harris campaign official told CNN.
Over the weekend, Trump’s campaign said it had been targeted by foreign hacking after media organizations reported receiving a campaign vetting document on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD 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,” Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman said Saturday.
He pointed to a report from Microsoft last week in which the tech giant said it had uncovered evidence that Iranian hackers had tried to access the email account of a “high-ranking official” in a presidential campaign in June.
“Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters,” Microsoft said. “Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime—along with the Kremlin—may be equally engaged in election 2024.”
The U.S. government has not publicly blamed Iran and Tehran has denied hacking allegations.
“We do not accord any credence to such reports,” a spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations said over the weekend. “The Iranian Government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”
