Report: Iran Suspected of Hacking Roger Stone's Email

Suspected Iranian hackers compromised the personal email account of longtime Republican and Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, CNN reported Monday night, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The FBI said in a statement earlier Monday that it was investigating the reported cyberattack on the Trump campaign but declined to comment further.

The hackers used access to Stone's email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks, one of the sources told CNN.

The hacking incident, which occurred in June, set off a scramble in the Trump campaign, the FBI and Microsoft, which spotted the intrusion attempts, to contain the incident and to determine if there was a broader cyber threat from Iran.

Stone was informed by Microsoft and the FBI that his personal email was compromised by a "Foreign State Actor," with the intention of utilizing the account to phish officials in the Trump campaign into opening a link that would give perpetrators access to that person's computer, one of the sources said.

"Mr. Stone was contacted about this matter by Microsoft and the FBI and continues to cooperate with both," Grant Smith, an attorney for Stone, told CNN. "Mr. Stone will have no further comment at this time."

The Washington Post first reported that Stone's account was targeted. The Trump campaign declined to comment on whose account was breached.

The FBI also briefed the Biden-Harris campaign in June about Iranian hackers targeting that campaign, one of the sources said.

"Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems," a Harris campaign official told CNN.

U.S. intelligence officials have briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee on the hacking incident, another source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Iran has denied the allegations, and the U.S. government has not publicly or officially blamed Iran. But the techniques used to target the Trump campaign match those associated with Iranian hackers, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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