Former President Donald Trump claimed on social media recently that Vice President Kamala Harris’s team took information stolen from the Trump campaign by Iranian hackers and said it was “illegally spying on him.”
Verdict: Unsubstantiated
Iranian hackers did send information to people associated with the then-Biden campaign (now the Harris campaign), however, there is no evidence at this time that the Harris campaign accepted any materials.
Fact Check:
After an attack in Lebanon that killed 37 and wounded thousands, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that Israel will face “a crushing response,” Al Jazeera reported.
Former President Donald Trump made a post on Truth Social that alleges the Harris campaign took information stolen from the his campaign by Iranian spies. This post was made late Wednesday night and has been reposted more than 13,000 times.
The post reads, “WOW, JUST OUT! THE 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. TO BE KNOWN AS THE IRAN, IRAN, IRAN CASE! WILL KAMALA RESIGN IN DISGRACE FROM POLITICS? WILL THE COMMUNIST LEFT PICK A NEW CANDIDATE TO REPLACE HER?”
This claim is unsubstantiated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of Director of the National Intelligence (ODNI), and the Cybersecurity and Intelligence Agency (CISA) released a statement noting that “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.”
CBS News reported that there is no evidence that any member of Biden’s team replied to these messages or accepted the information. Harris’ campaign also confirmed that some individuals did receive unsolicited emails, but claim her team did not accept them and saw them as a “spam or phishing attempt,” according to Fox News. (RELATED: Did JD Vance Follow Trump Would-Be Assassin On Social Media)
The joint statement from ODNI, CISA, and FBI notes that there is “currently no information indicating those recipients replied.” The statement also notes that this information was sent to media organizations and that “Russia, Iran, and China are trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in U.S. society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability.”
There is no evidence that Harris’ campaign is “illegally spying” on the Trump campaign. Check Your Fact contacted the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment.