Former President Donald Trump‘s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., touted a recent indictment of Iranian hackers as “perhaps the greatest endorsement” of his father’s 2024 campaign in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that three “cyber actors” who are employees of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s paramilitary—Masoud Jalili, 36, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, 34, and Yaser Balaghi, 37,—were charged with a hacking conspiracy on accounts of current and former U.S. officials, journalists, nongovernmental organizations and people associated with U.S. political campaigns. The DOJ said others “known and unknown” were a part of the conspiracy.
The DOJ mentioned a joint statement released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) earlier this month in Friday’s press release.
“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 Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” the September 18 statement read.
The FBI and CISA said at the time that there was no information to indicate that the Biden campaign replied to those emails.
“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 statement continued.
Appearing on Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo, Trump Jr. claimed that Iran is “colluding with the Biden-Harris administration to try to give them information against their political enemies,” despite there being no evidence that the former Biden campaign took part in the Iranian hackers’ efforts.
“I can’t tell if it’s terrible or if it’s perhaps the greatest endorsement of my father’s campaign,” Trump Jr. said on Sunday. “Iran does not want him to be president. Russia does not want him to be president. Our enemies do not want my father to be president because they understand that bringing back strength and resolve to America is really bad for their global ambitions.”
When reached for comment by Newsweek, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said via email on Sunday afternoon: “The terror regime in Iran loves the weakness and stupidity of Kamala Harris, and is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Donald J. Trump.”
Newsweek also reached out to Harris’ campaign via email for comment and The Trump Organization where Trump Jr. is the executive vice president via email for comment from Trump Jr. on Sunday afternoon.
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The DOJ, meanwhile, said the reason for the hacking conspiracy “was part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials that could be used to advance the malign activities of the IRGC…”
Trump claimed on social media on Wednesday that there are “big threats on my life by Iran” after being briefed by U.S. intelligence on alleged assassination plans.
Trump’s campaign said that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had briefed the former president on Tuesday on the “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that he supports Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, over Trump.
Putin said Russia’s “favorite” was formerly President Joe Biden before he exited the race in July, but that the country would now “support” Harris. Biden and Harris, meanwhile, have been strong allies to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Putin launched in February 2022.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that Putin was joking about supporting Harris.
Meanwhile, on the same day that the FBI and CISA’s statement was released, Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, “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.”
However, the information was allegedly handed to Biden’s campaign while he was still in the race, not Harris, and both Harris and Biden have not been formally accused of spying.