Iranian hackers sent ‘stolen’ Trump campaign material to individuals associated with Biden campaign: FBI
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies released findings that Iranian hackers have continued efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election, with “stolen” information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign being sent to individuals associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign before he left the race.
“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,” U.S. intelligence agencies said in a statement Wednesday.
“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied,” investigators said.
Additionally, the FBI found that the Iranian government has “continued their efforts” to send “stolen” campaign materials to media organizations.
In June, Iran launched a phishing campaign against the then Biden campaign and Trump campaign — with the Trump campaign operation getting internal campaign materials.
In mid-August, U.S. intelligence agencies — the FBI, CISA and ODNI — warned of this effort, and as of now, the effort still exists, according to the agencies.
“This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multi-pronged approach, as noted in the joint August statement, to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” investigators said.
“As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible. Foreign actors are increasing their election influence activities as we approach November,” investigators said.
On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign released a statement, calling for more information from the Biden-Harris administration about the intelligence agencies’ findings.
“Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump. What did they know and when did they know it?” Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign National Press Secretary, said in a statement.
Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement, “We have cooperated with the appropriate law enforcement authorities since we were made aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation.”
“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein added. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.”
Intelligence agencies have assessed Russia, China and Iran as the biggest peddlers of influence operations in 2024.
In a statement Wednesday, Iran’s Mission to the United Nations called the intelligence agencies’ findings “fundamentally unfounded, and wholly inadmissible.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not engage in the internal uproars or electoral controversies of the United States,” the statement said.
(WASHINGTON) — An amendment that would create a right to an abortion in Arizona’s constitution will appear on the state’s ballot this November.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition supporting the amendment, announced on Monday night that the measure would appear on the state’s November ballot as Proposition 139, allowing voters in the swing state to decide on the issue this election cycle.
Arizona’s secretary of state office confirmed to ABC News on Monday evening that the Arizona for Abortion Access Act will officially be on the ballot this November.
The secretary of state’s office told ABC News that Arizona turned in an estimated 577,971 valid signatures for Abortion Access. The group surpassed the minimum number of signatures needed, which was 383,923. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes signed the required paperwork to put the ballot measure in front of voters.
If passed in November, the measure would establish a fundamental right to an abortion in the state. It would protect access to abortion up until viability, which is generally around 24 weeks, with exceptions after that if a “healthcare provider determines an abortion is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the patient.”
Arizona law currently bans abortions after 15 weeks and includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs in May signed repeal legislation of a long-dormant, near-total abortion ban that had been revived by the state Supreme Court, stirring widespread controversy and debate.
(WEST ALLIS) — Vice President Kamala Harris rallied voters in battleground Wisconsin on Tuesday, her first presidential campaign event since securing enough delegate pledges for the Democratic nomination if they keep their word — and used the rally to sharply frame her race against former President Donald Trump.
Since Sunday, Harris has earned the backing of Democratic Party leaders and enough Democratic National Convention delegates to make her the nominee if they kept true to their pledges — a major milestone for the vice president.
“So Wisconsin, I am told as of this morning that we have earned the support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination. And I am so very honored, and I pledge to you, I will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so that we are ready to win in November,” Harris said to an energetic crowd in West Allis, Wisconsin — just outside of Milwaukee.
Harris attacked Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on the issue of abortion and Project 2025, the conservative presidential transition blueprint fronted by the Heritage Foundation.
“We’ll stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have the government tell them what to do,” Harris said to raucous applause. “And when Congress passes the law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States, I will sign it into law.”
Harris, in recent weeks, has leaned into her career as a prosecutor, having served as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general, to draw a contrast with Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts.
During the rally, Harris touted her previous experience while making a dig at Trump.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said. “So, hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
The comments elicited the chant of “lock him up” from the crowd — a reference to the popular “lock her up” chants from crowds at Trump’s rallies when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Harris’ campaign chose Wisconsin — a key battleground state in the 2024 race — as the site of her first campaign event. Wisconsin hosted the Republican National Convention last week.
“Vice President Harris’s visit will highlight the choice facing Wisconsinites: between Donald Trump, the convicted felon who would drag this country backwards, and her brighter vision for the future, where our freedoms are protected and every American has a fair shot,” the campaign said in the memo.
Before taking the stage, Harris’ campaign announced that her political operation raised $100 million in just over a day since getting in the race for president after President Joe Biden announced he would bow out of the race.
The massive sum — raised by the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their joint fundraising committees — came in between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, the campaign said. Within that time, 58,000 people signed up to volunteer, a figure that is more than 100 times their average daily sign-up rate, according to the campaign.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Secret Service faced an array of challenges — and made some potentially dangerous mistakes — while trying to protect the president, vice president and vice president-elect on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob supporting then-President Donald Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, offers an official and detailed account of how Kamala Harris, then the incoming vice president, ended up within feet of a “viable” pipe bomb planted in the bushes right outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters that day.
“The pipe bomb had been placed near the building the night before, but … [a]dvance security sweeps by the Secret Service at the DNC building did not include the outside area where a pipe bomb had been placed,” says the report from inspector general Joseph Cuffari, which was shared with members of Congress on Thursday.
The report describes how two Secret Service canine teams assigned to sweep the building were “surprised” to learn the morning of Jan. 6 that more assets weren’t being provided to help with the sweep — but the report also notes that Secret Service policies and procedures at the time required fewer assets for protectees who had been elected to an office but not yet sworn in.
“[Harris], traveling in an armored vehicle with her motorcade, entered the DNC building via a ramp within 20 feet of the pipe bomb,” the report said.
According to the report, the pipe bomb was found an hour and 40 minutes after Harris arrived at the DNC building. The report suggests it took the Secret Service ten minutes to evacuate her, saying that she spent a total of about one hour and 50 minutes inside the building.
The Secret Service has since updated its policies to include more assets for “‘elect’ protectees,” according to the report, which is heavily redacted.
Federal authorities are still trying to determine who planted that pipe bomb and a similar device at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters nearby. The FBI is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Security camera video released by the FBI showed the suspect walking on a street in the area.
“Although these bombs did not detonate, it is important to remember the suspect walked along residential and commercial areas in Capitol Hill just blocks from the U.S. Capitol with viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders,” the FBI said in a statement seeking the public’s help earlier this year. “Moreover, the suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves.”
The report’s long-awaited release comes as the Secret Service is still reeling from its failure to prevent a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man from nearly assassinating Trump less than three weeks ago.
Testifying to Congress earlier this week, the acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, called that “a failure on multiple levels,” saying communication issues and other challenges helped prevent authorities from realizing how much of a threat the man posed, and then hampered their response.
Cuffari’s report describes how in 2021, communication challenges and missed signs of potential violence impacted the Secret Service’s planning and response to the events of Jan. 6.
As described in the report, the Secret Service was focused on three main locations that day: the Ellipse in Washington, where they were protecting Trump at his “Save America” rally; the U.S. Capitol, where then-vice president Mike Pence was presiding over the certification of the 2020 election results; and the DNC building, where Harris was visiting.
Like many other law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service “anticipated that the planned Ellipse rally would be like previous pro-Trump rallies” in Washington, which saw “some violence” limited to clashes between opposing protesters, the report said.
But once the rally got underway, according to the report, “the Secret Service encountered indicators of potential for violence within the crowd,” including people trying to enter the secure area with ballistic vests and gas masks.
By the conclusion of the rally, the Secret Service alone had confiscated 269 blades, 242 bottles of pepper spray and 94 other prohibited items, the report says.
At 2:13 p.m., a little more than an hour after Trump finished his speech at the rally, rioters breached the Capitol building.
“Due to communication challenges and limited contingency planning, [Pence and his] Secret Service protective detail only narrowly avoided rioters,” the report says of the rioters, some of whom directed threats at the then-vice president.
The section of the report discussing that episode includes substantial redactions, though it does say that agents reported “not receiving communications from various entities,” and also mentions “manpower challenges that day.”
“The events of January 6 were unprecedented, and the issues we identified during our review present an opportunity for the Secret Service to be better prepared in the future,” says the report, which makes several recommendations to improve Secret Service agility.
The Secret Service says it is already implementing many of the recommendations.
The report also offers a little more information about two controversial issues stemming from Jan. 6, including Trump’s alleged demands to go to the Capitol after his speech as the situation at the Capitol was escalating.
In June 2022, during dramatic public testimony before the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified she had been told by then-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato that Trump was so adamant about going to the Capitol that he grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine and lunged toward the Secret Service detail when his demands were denied.
According to the inspector general’s report, Ornato told Cuffari’s investigators in writing — after refusing an in-person interview — that he does “not recall being made aware of any [such] details,” nor does he “recall speaking with anyone about it.”
Trump’s detail lead, who was seated in front of the then-president, said he could not recall how the president responded when he was told he couldn’t go to the Capitol — but the limousine driver told investigators that Trump was angry about it, according to the report.
In the report, Cuffari also discusses efforts by his office — and “multiple committees of Congress” — to obtain phone communications, emails, and text messages from the Secret Service — but that their efforts were allegedly hampered because the Secret Service had “wiped all phones when it updated software in [the weeks after Jan. 6, and] did not have backup files.”
In total, Cuffari’s investigators ended up receiving one short text message sent by a single Secret Service official that day, according to the report.
The Secret Service disputed Cuffari’s implication that the phones were “wiped” with nefarious intent, saying the software update that left so many communications unattainable had been planned long before Jan. 6.
“It is reassuring that the [inspector general] report does not state anywhere that any Secret Service text messages were inappropriately deleted,” the Secret Service told Cuffari’s office in a letter responding to the report’s conclusions.
After Jan. 6, members of Congress pressed the Department of Homeland Security for a broad range of records, including communications from within the Secret Service. The Secret Service text messages were never provided, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., recently said, “We could have had a better and more thorough report had we had access to all those records.”