An Iran-linked hacking group that previously breached President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is now threatening to release another trove of emails it claims to have stolen from Trump associates, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and longtime ally Roger Stone. The group, known by the pseudonym “Robert,” told Reuters in online conversations over the weekend that it had obtained approximately 100 gigabytes of emails connected to Wiles, Stone, and Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, among others. The hackers suggested they might sell the material but did not provide specifics about its contents. The announcement came on the same day that the Trump administration released a bulletin warning about the ongoing threat posed by Iranian cyber actors to U.S. companies and critical infrastructure. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) described the new threat as a “calculated smear campaign” in a statement posted on X. CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy called the hackers a “hostile foreign adversary” that is seeking to “distract, discredit and divide” the American public by exploiting stolen and unverified material. “This so-called cyber ‘attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda,” McCarthy said, adding that the attempt was “designed to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants.” She vowed that those behind the attacks “will be found and will be brought to justice.” The U.S. Justice Department previously indicted three Iranians last September for allegedly working with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to carry out the 2024 Trump campaign hack. Hackers claiming to be “Robert” told Reuters they had not planned further cyberattacks until tensions flared with Israel this year, culminating in a 12-day conflict with Iran. That conflict ended in a ceasefire brokered by Trump following U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. During the 2024 campaign, Iranian-linked hackers were considered a more aggressive threat than Russia, which had previously carried out a high-profile hacking and disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential race. Microsoft identified several Iranian groups last year engaged in both cyberattacks and influence operations aimed at shaping the outcome of the 2024 U.S. election. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)