OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:58 PM – Wednesday, December 4, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has reportedly been targeted in an Iranian cyber attack, which was launched on Tuesday.
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The report, which was first released by the outlet Semafor, follows after Patel was nominated to direct the FBI in the second Trump administration.
“Kash Patel was a key part of the first Trump administration’s efforts against the terrorist Iranian regime and will implement President Trump’s policies to protect America from adversaries as the FBI Director,” stated Alex Pfeiffer, Trump’s transition spokesman.
It is currently unclear whether or not the purported attack was able to obtain any information, and Pfeiffer refrained from revealing any details.
The attack also comes after Trump’s campaign previously announced that it was hacked by foreign entities back in August, obtaining internal documents. The FBI later discovered that Trump’s campaign was in fact hacked by Iranians. The hackers distributed Trump campaign emails to officials and employees connected to the Democrat party in late June and early July. A statement from the U.S. government stated that the emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.”
In July, representatives from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence also reiterated that Tehran had launched their own discreet campaign aimed at weakening Trump’s candidacy
“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, another Trump campaign spokesperson, stated at the time.
Iran has consistently denied responsibility for the August attack. However, the FBI has already indicted three individuals associated with the Iranian Revolution Guards Corps (IRCG). Iranian nationals Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yaser Balaghi were all named as conspirators in the indictment.
“The activity 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, including ongoing efforts to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC – Qods Force,” a press release by the Department of Justice stated.
“Today’s charges represent the culmination of a thorough and long-running FBI investigation that has resulted in the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their roles in a wide-ranging hacking campaign sponsored by the Government of Iran,” stated current FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“The conduct laid out in the indictment is just the latest example of Iran’s brazen behavior. So today the FBI would like to send a message to the Government of Iran – you and your hackers can’t hide behind your keyboards,” Wray continued.
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