FBI ‘Covering Up’ Iran’s 2024 Election Interference: Congresswoman

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is “doubling down on its politicization and corruption” by concealing details of Iran’s election interference operations which were potentially helping Kamala Harris’ campaign, according to a Republican congresswoman.

Significant concerns have arisen over potential foreign meddling in the 2024 Presidential Election, with officials and analysts increasingly worried that campaigns could be affected, or voters swayed by hacks and sophisticated disinformation operations originating from Russia, China, and Iran.

However, despite several reports from the U.S. intelligence community detailing these efforts, and criminal charges being brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against several individuals, New York Representative Elise Stefanik believes questions still remain over the extent of Tehran’s influence operation.

“It is my duty to share with the American people what the FBI has failed to answer—and, I believe, is willfully covering up—about Iranian influence in the 2024 presidential election,” Stefanik wrote in a Sunday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

Stefanik, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said she had requested additional information on Tehran’s actions from FBI Director Christopher Wray, after the Bureau delivered a closed briefing on foreign election interference in late September.

While Stefanik said the FBI had promised to follow-up on her request, she said it has now “gone silent,” and stonewalled her inquiries.

Stefanik’s 13 questions, published in her column, concern the Bureau’s knowledge of the mid-2024 hacks on the Trump campaign, and the exfiltration of campaign data which was then sent to individuals associated with the Biden campaign, as well as Politico, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Newsweek has reached out to the FBI for a response to Stefanik’s article, and to inquire whether it will respond to her list of questions.

In late September, the DOJ unsealed an indictment charging three Iranian nationals for their role in the attack, which the department said formed “part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process.”

“The conduct laid out in the indictment is just the latest example of Iran’s brazen behavior. So today the FBI would like to send a message to the Government of Iran—you and your hackers can’t hide behind your keyboards,” FBI Director Wray said at the time.

However, according to Stefanik, the indictment gives insufficient details on the FBI’s investigation, suggesting that critical information is still being withheld from the American public.

“The FBI could easily and quickly answer these questions without impeding any investigation or revealing sources, methods or classified information,” Stefanik said. “Its refusal to do so suggests it is hiding information that would reflect poorly on the FBI—perhaps an attempt to influence the election through when and whom it notified, or the complicity of Democratic presidential operatives in this foreign election interference.”

According to Stefanik, this would not be the first time the FBI had been influenced by “anti-Trump political bias.” She cited the 2016-2017 “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into links between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, as well its “censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story.”

Stefanik continued: “We won’t tolerate a rogue FBI withholding information on an issue as important as this—a foreign enemy attempting to undermine, hack and kill the leading candidate for president.”

Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.