Hackers Threaten to Publish Stolen Emails from Trump's Associates, Roger Stone, and Stormy Daniels

Last summer, hackers believed to be associated with the Iranian military stole a trove of documents from the Trump campaign. They then proceeded to leak the docs to Biden staffers, as well as to a number of major U.S. media organizations, including the New York Times and Politico. At the time, some commentators assessed that Iran was attempting to influence the course of the U.S. presidential election. Now, those same hackers are back, and threatening to release another 100 gigabytes of stolen data.

The group in question, which goes by the name “Robert,” recently told Reuters that they have internal emails sent by some of Trump’s top associates, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Trump fanboy Roger Stone, Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan, and Stormy Daniels, the former porn star who claims she and the President had an affair. The hackers told the outlet that they were considering selling the emails, but didn’t give much of a clue as to what the emails might say or who they might sell them to.

It’s obviously an interesting time for the group to resume activities, given the fact that the U.S. (under Trump’s direction) just bombed Iran. That said, it stands to reason that if the group had anything truly salacious to reveal, the time to threaten the release of those materials would have been prior to the U.S.’s attack on its country, so as to give its government a bargaining chip.

The Trump administration has predictably sought to downplay and discredit the group’s most recent claims. “This so-called cyber ‘attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda, and the targets are no coincidence,” Marci McCarthy, director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said on X. “This is a calculated smear campaign meant to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants who serve our country with distinction. These criminals will be found and they will be brought to justice.” Gizmodo reached out to the White House for more information.

While Iran isn’t considered one of the most sophisticated cyber actors in the world (Israel, for instance, is considered to be much more formidable), the group that allegedly hacked the Trump campaign is said to employ fairly tricky tactics. Reuters previously reported that the group, which has also been given the monikers APT42 or “CharmingKitten,” is known for placing malware on officials’ phones that can record their calls and monitor their mobile activities. The group is also alleged to have previously stolen emails from officials not directly tied to the Trump campaign, including a former CIA deputy director, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and other high-level government officials.

In September of 2024, the outgoing Biden Justice Department charged three Iranian operatives with having hacked and stolen the materials from the Trump campaign. The three hackers were said to have been in the employ of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The government said the hack-and-leak operation was part of an effort to “stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials.”