An Iran-linked hacking group has threatened to release a trove of emails it claims to have stolen from President Donald Trump’s longtime aides, including adviser Roger Stone and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Reuters reported Monday that the cyberattack group, which targeted Trump’s 2024 campaign, says it possesses roughly 100 gigabytes of emails ready for leak.
Operating under the pseudonym Robert, the hackers have not disclosed the contents of the emails or a timeline for their release, according to Reuters. The group previously leaked some emails ahead of last year’s U.S. presidential election, Newsweek reported.
In online chats with Reuters, the group claimed to also possess emails from the accounts of Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan and Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who was reportedly paid $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding an alleged affair with Trump.
A “hostile foreign adversary is threatening to illegally exploit purportedly stolen and unverified material in an effort to distract, discredit, and divide,” the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said late on Monday.
This development underscores ongoing efforts by Washington to combat foreign interference targeting the White House. In a September indictment, the U.S. Justice Department under the Biden administration charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps with orchestrating a leak that ultimately failed to disrupt the presidential election.
The hacking group did not respond to the allegations, while Tehran has consistently denied any involvement in cyberespionage, Newsweek reported.
CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy called the hack a “calculated smear campaign” intended to damage the president.
In a statement to Reuters, FBI Director Kash Patel added: “Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Reuters verified some of the material from the previous leak that surfaced ahead of the presidential election. The leaked content, which included emails from accounts such as Wiles, was distributed to journalists.
One email appeared to outline a financial arrangement between Trump and attorneys representing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary. Another email touched on settlement negotiations with Stormy Daniels, according to the news agency.
The latest threat comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran following Trump’s June order for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Most of the U.S. media downplayed the effectiveness of the strike, relying on a “low confidence” Defense Intelligence Agency assessment leaked within hours of the strike as well as Iranian government sources.
But Trump has said that Israeli agents inspected Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility following recent U.S. airstrikes and reported the site was “totally obliterated.”
He also issued a warning that further action would be taken if Iran resumed uranium enrichment, FirstPost reported.
“They have guys who go in after the strike, and they said it was total obliteration,” Trump told attendees and reporters at a NATO meeting in The Hague this week.
Trump added that Israel is currently preparing a full damage assessment and suggested that Iran had no time to relocate any materials from the site before the strike.
He compared the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, claiming both had a similarly decisive effect in bringing conflict to a halt.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has also confirmed that Iran’s nuclear program had sustained significant damage and would require years to rebuild. “Several key nuclear facilities were destroyed,” he said, citing reliable intelligence sources.
Trump also announced a US-Iran meeting is likely to happen next week to discuss Tehran’s nuke program. “We may sign an agreement, or we may not,” he said. “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not.”