We have seen increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns.
This includes recently reported activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign, which the Intelligence Community (IC) attributes to Iran. The IC is confident that the Iranians, through social engineering and other efforts, have sought to access individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activities, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the American electoral process. It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and previous federal election cycles, but also in other countries around the world.
Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority. As a leader in threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information to pursue and dismantle the threat actors responsible.
