After Serving as a Pawn for Russia, Roger Stone Became a Pwn of Iran

Yeah, I know. I know.

I should have immediately written up the news — first reported by WaPo and then matched by CNN — that Roger Stone was hacked by suspected Iranian hackers and then his compromised account was used in an attempt to compromise a top Trump advisor.

Trump’s rat-fucker provided an interview in a story that WaPo appears to have subsequently buried, one in which the habitual liar claimed he was cooperating.

People familiar with the matter said the phishing attempt appears to have succeeded in compromising the communications of at least one person not formally connected to either campaign: Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Trump.

“I was informed by the authorities that a couple of my personal email accounts have been compromised,” Stone said in a brief interview. “I really don’t know more about it. And I’m cooperating. It’s all very strange.”

Stone’s account was used to send emails to the Trump campaign containing a link that, if clicked, could have allowed Iran to intercept the target’s other emails, the people familiar with the matter said.

His long-time lawyer, Grant Smith, confirmed Roger’s purported cooperation to CNN.

The FBI and other investigators probing the apparent hack-and-leak of Trump campaign documents, which Donald Trump has blamed on Iran, suspect that the hackers were able to compromise the personal email account of longtime Republican and Trump operative Roger Stone, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The hackers used access to Stone’s email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks, one of the sources said. The hacking incident, which occurred in June, set off a scramble in the Trump campaign, the FBI and Microsoft, which spotted the intrusion attempts, to contain the incident and to determine if there was a broader cyber threat from Iran.

Stone was informed by Microsoft and the FBI that his personal email was compromised by a “Foreign State Actor,” with the intention of utilizing the account to phish officials in the Trump campaign into opening a link that would give perpetrators access to that person’s computer, one of the sources familiar said.

“Mr. Stone was contacted about this matter by Microsoft and the FBI and continues to cooperate with both,” said Grant Smith, an attorney for the Republican operative. “Mr. Stone will have no further comment at this time.”

Maybe we’ll get around to uncertainty over whether Stone was the account whence, Microsoft describes, someone on the Trump team was targeted or the more interesting question of whether Iran, or someone else, is the source of the files shared with Politico, WaPo, and NYT. Thus far, it seems clear that three Biden-Harris people avoided being hacked and the Trump advisor may have avoided being hacked too.

It’s just Roger, so far.

Until we learn more (such as the source of the materials shared with the press, which Roger Stone wouldn’t have an obvious purpose to have), the involvement of Roger in this — the fact that Iran successfully pwned him, of all people — is interesting for a different reason.

If you ignore the whole Andrii Derkach information operation from 2020 (which, questions about Hunter Biden’s laptop aside, didn’t involve digital compromise), the most successful known operation from 2020 actually involved the Iranians.

As former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs (who has already weighed in that this Iranian attempt is serious) described it in his January 6 Committee, some Iranian actors pretending to be Proud Boys targeted Democrats and pushed them to vote for Trump.

So I give you an example. 2020, October 22nd and 23rd, a series of emails start popping up in people’s email in-boxes throughout Florida and elsewhere. The emails claim to be from the Proud Boys, and they are saying, hey — and they tend to be targeting Democrats and – registered Democrats at least. And so the claims say, hey, we know you’re a registered Democrat. You have to change your registration and vote for Trump.

If you don’t, we’re going to come after you and we’ll know who you voted for.

And so we saw these coming in. And we —you know, the way we would address — deal with this, with any of these themes or claims is we would just systematically reverse engineer the claim. So the claim here is that we will know who you voted for. So it’s the law of the land in all 50 States of a secret ballot. That’s kind of the magic of American elections.

And so that was the hook for us, to say, these sorts of emails are coming out. The –it’s actually untrue that anyone would ever know who you voted for unless you tell them.

There is a secret ballot. So disregard, this is disinfo.

And that was the crux of rumor control, which we launched that Monday or Tuesday of the week of 21, 22, whatever it was, October.

[snip]

Q Now, I don’t want you to get into certainly any classified information, but I do think you’ve spoken publicly or it was disclosed that it turns out it was a foreign actor involved with the Proud Boys emails.

A It was Iran. Yes. And we went from first discovery of that email 11 a.m., 2 noonish maybe, when reports came out on Tuesday to standing in FBI headquarters that evening, Wednesday evening about 7 p.m., attributing that attack to Iranian — that influence operation to Iranian actors.

In other words, in 2020, Iran used the threat of Roger Stone’s mob, the Proud Boys, to intimidate Democratic voters (precisely the danger that made Stone’s threats to both Randy Credico and Amy Berman Jackson so bad during the Mueller investigation and aftermath).

And then, of all the people to exploit as a way to get to Trump, Iran chooses Trump’s rat-fucker, the same guy with close ties to the Proud Boys?

Iran seems to have a thing for Roger and his mob.

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40 replies
  1. SteveBev says:

    Typo
    “Until we learn more (such as the source of the materials shred with the press ..”
    Shared

  2. sfvalues says:

    Typo: “shred with the press.” I think you meant “shared” not “shred.” The press usually waits to do its shredding until later.

  3. Bugboy321 says:

    “People familiar with the matter said the phishing attempt appears to have succeeded…”
    So, it was a PHISHING ATTEMPT? That is NOT an attack, that’s an open door to invite them in, constituting an entirely willful disregard for standard security protocols. And is Richard M., um, I mean Roger Stone even employed by the campaign? What a clown show…

    • ExRacerX says:

      It’s described as “Spear-Phishing,”—a directed attack rather than casting a wide net (“Phishing”).

      • Bugboy321 says:

        Oh, so Roger got his own very special phishing email? Isn’t that just special?

        That makes not one bit of difference. Roger Stone opened the door by clicking on a link in an email, in violation of every damned corporate email policy in existence, ever.

        ETA: Oops, sorry Rayne, it populated my old name… [Fixed — check your browser’s cache and autofill. /~Rayne]

        • subtropolis says:

          No, someone got into Stone’s account and sent the phishing email to someone involved with Mr Big Mouth’s campaign.

      • boatgeek says:

        Hmmm. I thought the first breakin (to Stone) was wide net phishing, then they tried to get someone senior via a spearphishing shot from Stone. Regardless, don’t click the #$%#$ing links!

    • EuroTark says:

      Most attacks focus on getting the target to open the door for you, it’s much easier that way. So yes phishing is a form of cyber attack.

      • Bugboy321 says:

        So we’re calling it a cyber attack now? Awesome! Something about a prosciutto recipe and buttery mails? As someone much smarter than me once wrote: “Never Give Known Liars the Benefit of the Doubt”

        • ExRacerX says:

          The Harris/Walz campaign has reported similar attacks. Are you going to suggest they’re just making it up, too?

        • Bugboy321 says:

          ExRacerXsays:
          August 13, 2024 at 5:40 pm
          You are the one suggesting the Harris/Walz campaign is lying, not me. I KNOW the Trump campaign is lying every time it takes a breath. In particular, “former” dickheads like Stone, who literally has a dickhead tattooed on his back.

          P J Evanssays:
          August 13, 2024 at 7:04 pm
          LOL.

          [Moderator’s note: This ends here. You made your point already, others have offered their feedback, now it’s done because this is beginning to DDoS this thread. /~Rayne]

  4. zscoreUSA says:

    The Microsoft report refers to “a former senior advisor” that “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account”.

    I’m getting caught up in semantics. Is that Roger Stone? A “former senior advisor ” as opposed to a current or long-time informal advisor? Maybe just worded that way to mask identity for privacy.

    The WaPo article sounds like they are just taking Roger’s word for it. CNN sounds similarly like they are taking his word, and not viewing the underlying emails and contact from Microsoft. I don’t understand why at this point, a journalist would just take their word for this type of stuff. Shouldn’t they ask to see the data? Then include in the report whether he cooperated or declined?

    How did the reporters land on Roger’s name to speak with him? Did he reach out? Someone from the campaign named him to reporters?

    Roger has also been reported to be an agent during a previous election on behalf of a nation that is enemies with Iran.

    Between that, and Roger even providing a statement to mainstream media, and the ambiguity of who sent the Vance dossier, I’m highly cautious about this situation.

    I also keep in mind the Seth Rich conspiracy and the tendency for projection. If right wingers screamed and falsely accused for years of a staffer being the source of a data theft instead of a nation-state, then there is a reflection of how they may operate.

    • Bugboy321 says:

      Why should anyone give these bastards the benefit of the doubt as known liars? This is fundamentally an example of: The D-Squared Digest One Minute MBA – Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101, which includes “If You Tell Lies A Lot, You Tend To Get A Reputation As A Liar”

      • JVOJVOJVO says:

        The MAGAts have never learned the lesson of the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
        They love to hear their Boy Cry!

    • originalK says:

      What I want to know is if we are supposed to be keeping mum about Manafort:Russia::Stone:Iran and that “polling data” doesn’t send itself? In this scenario, the spear-phish would the purposeful opening of a door, and a catch by Microsoft unwanted. For background on how the U.S.-Russia-Iran-Israel-Hungary geopolitical relationships factor in to my thinking on this, I would recommend the movie Mean Girls (2004).

      • originalK says:

        Well, this is why I’m also a wikipedia donor: It says the first print use of “frienemies” was by Walter Winchell, in 1953, in reference to the US-Russia relationship.

    • subtropolis says:

      The “former senior adviser” is Stone. The “high-ranking official” — identity unknown — was the target of the phishing attempt, using Stone’s deets.

      • misnomer bjet says:

        Yes, but “high ranking official” easily refers to Manafort (yes, in June), and so; that ‘spear’ was easily actually provided as a shield.

  5. Amateur Lawyer At Work says:

    Stone is old, vain-glorious, and much less intelligent than he thinks he is. First and last ones are good reasons to target him, but nothing special.

    He’s also a ratfcker of international renown, connected/”connected”, and involved in shady doings with a diverse and broadly-scattered group of morons. THOSE are the reasons to target him. He does stuff out of sight (or when he thinks he is out of sight) with morons who need clearer instructions than coded phrases but who are also too far apart to talk with directly but not by phone.

    However, I suspect that he’s become so radioactive among non-Nazi political professionals that he was ignored rather than someone thinking “This seems like someone impersonating Stone…”

    • boatgeek says:

      Couldn’t have happened to a nicer ratfucker!

      I hope that if files related to ratfucking were stolen that they make their way to the public domain. I don’t really care about the vetting report on Vance other than morbid curiosity about how much of his current travails was already known. But knowing the game plan for the election would be fantastic.

    • Alan Charbonneau says:

      “We’re either going to the White House or the Big House. It’s one or the other.” —Roger Stone.

    • Hardy Pottinger_05JAN2023_1241h says:

      If one wanted to *ensure* messages from a ratfcker are ignored, this would be an excellent way to do that.

      [Welcome back to emptywheel. Please use the same username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. You attempted to publish this comment as “I Can’t Recall” which is not acceptable; it has been used repeatedly by other commenters who also forget their username. Your first known comment was published as “Hardy Pottinger“; most recently you published a comment as “HardyoyYo.” Pick a name which is at least 8 letters long and unique; until then your username has been edited to match your original username and the date/time of your first comment. /~Rayne]

      • Hardyoyo says:

        Sorry about that. I’ll do better.

        [Moderator’s note: you’re going to have to try harder because you’ve used yet another username. /~Rayne]

  6. harpie says:

    This jogged a distant memory.
    KREBS flagged a part of FLYNN’s J6C testimony in December 2022, and I did a little TL with it here:
    https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/23/michigans-fake-electors-transcripts-limn-black-holes-into-january-6/#comment-976380

    KREBS: 10:38 PM · Dec 21, 2022:

    Cool, cool. Just the former National Sec Advisor [FLYNN] pushing an Iranian info op to the former Acting Director for National Intelligence [GRENELL].[…] [screenshots]

    The first entry in my TL there:

    11/10/20 Date of FAKE letter [WHY this date?], hosted by a likely Iranian website, which purports to be from Chris KREBS (CISA) to Matt GORHAM assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, which falsely claims that voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems had been compromised. This letter is the subject of communications between FLYNN and GRENELL on 12/11/20 at 3:56 PM […]

    • Savage Librarian says:

      Grenell worked with Kushner on this deal. There are more current articles about the status of this, but I’m not sure of the trustworthiness of the cites/sites:

      “Kushner Developing Deals Overseas Even as His Father-in-Law Runs for President” – 3/15/24

      “Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who was also a senior White House official, said he was close to finalizing real estate projects in Albania and Serbia.”
      …..
      “Mr. Kushner’s plans in the Balkans appear to have come about in part through relationships built while Mr. Trump was in office. Mr. Kushner, who was a senior White House official, said he had been working on the deals with Richard Grenell, who served briefly as acting director of national intelligence under Mr. Trump and also as ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/us/politics/jared-kushner-pursuing-development-deals-in-albania-and-serbia.html

    • zscoreUSA says:

      “Iranian info op”. Good catch.

      Trump went apeshit at Krebs declaring the election secure. Like a pretext for was taken away.

  7. Buzzkill Stickinthemud says:

    Stone said in a brief interview. “I really don’t know more about it. And I’m cooperating. It’s all very strange.”

    That sure smells like bullshit. You’d think he’d make a statement with a little more mustard on it.

    • Capemaydave says:

      I have no factual insight into this matter.

      I will suggest that sometimes BS covers for errors.

      Stone is a ratfcker AND an arrogant, ignorant about tech, Trumpist.

      The fallout could be far bigger than he imagined.

      Inviting crazy into a game rarely works well.

  8. Savage Librarian says:

    “Yeah, I know. I know.”

    LOL. When I first saw that Proud Boys logo in the Microsoft report about Iran, Stone was the first person I thought of. What a network of connections he would have, on both sides of the aisle. And he’s known Susie Wiles for decades, plus he listed her in the acknowledgements of his book. But my mind just couldn’t think of him as a “former senior advisor.”

    Welp, I don’t know what to think now. But I’m guessing a whole lot of people are all shook up. What a mess. Gotta wonder why people choose to live their lives this way.

  9. Bobster33 says:

    I am waiting for Roger Stone to turn over his hard drive to the FBI so the FBI can do its own forensic investigation.

    That was a joke, Roger’s computer likely has evidence of his current ratfucking efforts. He’s not going to show it to anyone in law enforcement.

  10. coalesced says:

    I suspect the initial public Microsoft advisory on 8/8 describing the Iranian spearfishing attempts is what prompted the various news outlets to publish stories of their ongoing communications with “Robert” and his “stolen” campaign docs. I would not be surprised to learn that these are separate events involving different actors. Likely mistakenly conflated but with a bit of an accidental force multiplier effect…..see Dr. Wheeler’s 8/11 report on the hack.

    One of the reports mentioned the Trump campaign NOT notifying the FBI once they became aware of the breach. NONE of the reports include any mention of the Trump campaign’s current posture in regards to cooperation with any investigation. They clearly knew how to report on Stone’s bullshit claims of “cooperation” so why not on Trump’s cooperation or lack of? We have no idea if/when any of the spearfishing attempts successfully landed on intended end users, and if so, to what extent they might be compromised……….and neither does the Trump campaign. Interesting times.

    • Bugboy321 says:

      It’s got all the hallmarks of a MAGA/ratfucker propaganda operation. Time shifting? Check. Piggybacking on an authority’s warning of attacks? Check. And it’s GD maddening to see the double standard here, in the press and even from commenters here.

  11. Booksellerb4 says:

    Well, I have had fun pursuing threads and clues of this news item. I just love how Dr. Wheeler surfs the curl of “breaking news” sometimes!!

    So I did look around for stone ratfuckery, and was happy to see that the online stories are reporting the connection between hacked/hackee/hacker, following up the original news . I ain’t superstitious but a black cat did cross my path today.

    And harpie’s note about Krebs sent chills of connected malfeasance up and down and around.

    But this Yahoo News entry made me laugh, partly because of the report’s dedication to accurate details : “…his [Stone’s] Hotmail (old school!) and his Gmail accounts were compromised. Stone said he was first contacted by Microsoft a few months ago, and then a few weeks later by the FBI. Using Stone, who was convicted in the Mueller investigation then later corruptly pardoned by President Trump only to turn up again in the thick of Jan. 6, to exploit access to the Trump campaign is a scriptwriter’s fantasy plot twist.” – David Kurtz Tue, August 13, 2024 at 9:43 AM EDT

    Given the nature of the topic, I did not think it prudent to provide a link. ;)

  12. Zinsky123 says:

    You live by the hack, you die by the hack. My first comment is that this couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Secondly, it puts official eyes on Stone, who I’m sure is brewing up some mischief, misinformation or misdeeds to pull or push on the Democrats this fall! Finally, I hope someday we all can learn the extent of Stone’s involvement in the now historic hacks of Hillary Clinton and John Podesta’s e-mail that ended up on Wikileaks. Julian Assange was never asked under oath about Stone (that we have access to) before he was whisked off, never to be seen again. It remains shrouded. Thanks again, Marcy, for reporting no one else does.

  13. Old Rapier says:

    I can’t imagine how Stone wasn’t a target of hacks for years and years. Probably the only entity of note that isn’t trying is the DOJ. It seems to be outstandingly bad OPSEC to forward email links. So bad it’s hard to imagine him doing it. As with anything Stone, doubt everything. Or I’m just giving him to much credit. Credit for being smart

  14. subtropolis says:

    Iran seems to have a thing for Roger and his mob.

    I don’t know the specifics of the games Krebs described. Were the email threats purporting to be coming from actual addresses of certain PB members? Perhaps they’ve been inside Stone’s account all this time.

    … which Roger Stone wouldn’t have an obvious purpose to have …

    Perhaps, but we can make some fair assumptions. Mr Big Mouth is infamous for using people outside of ‘official channels’ for strategic advice. It’s also well known that he’s specifically kept Roger Stone close, despite all other appearances. What are the odds, then, that he’d sent Stone the files himself?

    To be clear: I’m thinking that the phishing attempt used info scarfed from Stone’s account. And that the stolen files likewise were taken from there. That is, they’re two separate things but stem from the same break-in.

    It’d be delicious were it true.

  15. Brad Cole says:

    The growing tendency of the WaPo to hire hacks, let them exploit their pages for partisan hackery, and bury any bad news deep in their archives is making it harder to justify the subscription.

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