An Iran-linked hacker group is claiming to be in possession of a trove of stolen emails from President\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0inner circle is threatening to publish the material in what U.S. officials describe as a politically motivated \u201csmear campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group, operating under the alias \u201cRobert,\u201d said it has over 100 gigabytes of emails from key Trump allies, including White House chief of staff\u00a0Susie Wiles, longtime confidant\u00a0Roger Stone, Trump attorney\u00a0Lindsey Halligan, and even adult film actress\u00a0Stormy Daniels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters broke the story<\/a> Tuesday after direct communication with the hackers, who hinted at potentially selling the material, though the group offered no specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The threat comes just days after Trump abruptly reversed a tentative effort to ease sanctions on Iran, following Supreme Leader Ayatollah\u00a0Ali Khamenei\u2019s\u00a0downplaying\u00a0of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. A top Iranian cleric has\u00a0issued a fatwa\u00a0against Trump and Israeli Prime Minister\u00a0Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the pair \u201cenemies of God.\u201d (RELATED: <\/strong>Iranian Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Targeting Trump<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi<\/a>, a leading Shiite cleric in Iran<\/a> with authority to issue legal rulings under Islamic law, has issued a fatwa<\/a> \u2014 an Islamic legal decree \u2014 escalating regional tensions and offering religious justification for violence against Western and Israeli leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Newsweek<\/em> rightly notes<\/a>, the development highlights the Islamic Republic\u2019s ongoing use of religious decrees as political tools \u2014 a strategy Iran has long used to project power beyond its borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While a fatwa is not legally enforceable, it can influence judicial decisions in countries with Sharia-based legal systems.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Khosro K. Isfahani, senior research analyst at the National Union for Democracy in Iran wrote on X, formerly Twitter<\/a>, that the fatwa issued by Shirazi against Trump was similar to the murder fatwa issued against the author Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses which led to a number of assassination attempts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis so-called cyber \u2018attack\u2019 is nothing more than digital propaganda,\u201d said Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) spokesperson\u00a0Marci McCarthy. She described the effort as a \u201ccalculated smear campaign\u201d designed to \u201cdamage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
\n