A hacker collective with ties to Iran is asserting that it has obtained a large cache of private emails from individuals close to President Donald Trump and is threatening to release the data, in what U.S. authorities are labeling an orchestrated political attack.
Using the pseudonym “Robert,” the group claims to have gathered over 100 gigabytes of email communications belonging to several prominent Trump associates, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Roger Stone, attorney Lindsey Halligan, and adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Reuters reported the development on Tuesday after engaging directly with the group, which floated the possibility of monetizing the stolen content but declined to elaborate on how or when such a sale might happen.
The timing of the threat coincides with Trump’s recent decision to abandon a tentative plan to soften sanctions against Iran. That reversal came in the wake of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s dismissive remarks about American and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear assets. A senior Iranian cleric subsequently declared a religious decree—fatwa—against Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, calling them “enemies of God.”
“This so-called cyber ‘attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda,” said Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) spokesperson Marci McCarthy. She described the effort as a “calculated smear campaign” designed to “damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants.”
The hackers assert that their actions were triggered by the U.S.’s recent role in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Trump, who has taken credit for brokering a ceasefire that ended the hostilities, is now being blamed by the group for what they describe as renewed provocation.
Federal officials have already tied the group to Iran. As reported by Axios, an indictment filed in 2024 charged three Iranian operatives associated with the “Robert” hackers in connection with a previous breach involving Trump-related systems. Prosecutors linked their activity directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
{Matzav.com}