Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was recently notified that he was the target of a potential Iran-backed cyberattack, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.

The apparent hackers targeted his communications, but whether they succeeded and how much access they had to the data is still being investigated, the people said.

The FBI declined to comment. CBS News had also reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

The news of Iran’s potential targeting of Patel was first reported by Semafor.

This comes after months of warnings from the FBI and other federal agencies of Iranian cyber activity targeting Trump campaign staff leading up the 2024 presidential election. In September, Justice Department prosecutors charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with launching a broad hacking campaign against U.S. officials, including those close to Trump.

In August, Microsoft said that Iran was increasing its efforts to influence the November election, and in one case had targeted a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack. 

Trump and his allies, including members of his first administration, have been targets of Iran since the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, and U.S. officials continued to warn of those cyberattack campaigns in recent months.

The 44-year-old Patel served in intelligence and defense roles in Trump’s first term, including chief of staff to the secretary of defense. He was also designated by Trump to be a representative to the National Archives and Records Administration and fought a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. 

He is an attorney and staunch Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, fighting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

He served on Trump’s National Security Council, then as a senior adviser to acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.  

Attorneys for defendant Nima Momeni on Tuesday wrapped up their closing argument with a surprise video clip they claimed showed fatal stabbing victim and Cash App founder Bob Lee doing cocaine with the same knife used to kill him hours later.

Defense attorneys brought the case to a dramatic conclusion with their closing arguments in the defendant’s high-profile murder trial. The state has accused Momeni of fatally stabbing tech executive Lee in a remote part of San Francisco’s East Cut neighborhood on an early morning in April 2023. 

Prosecutors have argued the deadly stabbing came after a heated discussion regarding his sister’s relationship with Lee and their ongoing drug use.

Video played for the first time inside the courtroom Tuesday showed Lee with his friend Borzu Mohazzebi appearing to consume cocaine outside the Battery club hours before the stabbing. But it was the object the pair used to consume the drugs that defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said is the same knife used in the murder. 

“They buried it,” Zangeneh said of the video following Tuesday’s session. “I guarantee you, they didn’t know we found it. Because if they knew, they would have addressed it.”

The victim’s brother Timothy Oliver Lee said that’s impossible.

“Bob never carried a knife and Bob never did coke off of a knife. It’s just insane to me,” he said.

Using a cardboard version of the Joseph Joseph paring knife used in the fatal stabbing, defense Zangeneh highlighted black and white surveillance video at the end of his team’s closing argument, saying it was proof Lee had the knife all along.

The claim directly counters the evidence presented in the prosecution’s closing argument that Lee couldn’t have had the knife in his front jacket pocket. Surveillance footage from later that night showed nothing weighing that side of the garment down as it blew in the wind.

“He’s holding the same exact shape and size of the knife that was found outside the Caltrans parking lot. That’s the knife,” Zangeneh said outside the courtroom. 

It wasn’t the first time the defense used theatrics during its closing arguments. Earlier, Zangeneh used a bag of sugar as a prop, assuring the judge and jury the plastic bag did not contain cocaine. 

The moment sparked a tense exchange between the defense attorney and Lee’s former wife Krista, who let out a mocking laugh as he showed the video.

Zangeneh then turned to directly to address her, saying it wasn’t funny. Prosecutors quickly objected, with the judge intervening and restoring order.

“Outbursts during closing argument from a family member is such an unbelievably inappropriate, unprofessional and, candidly, rude thing to do,” said Zangeneh. 

“He’s calling out Krista and people that are in the courtroom. That’s really painful for us,” said Timothy Oliver Lee. “Nima Momeni didn’t only kill Bob, but now he’s trying to kill his character; trying to kill his legacy. And that is something that we can’t abide. We can’t stand for that.”

Momeni’s defense attorneys made their final bid to prove their client’s innocence to jurors, saying that Momeni had no motive to stab Lee and trying to provide a lasting image reinforcing their claim that he acted in self-defense.

In criminal cases, prosecutors get the final word. During their rebuttal, the prosecution told jurors the odds for so many coincidences to fall into place to make Momeni’s story possible were like being struck by lightning 30 times.

They urged jurors to use common sense and return a guilty verdict. Their final words in court: “Do not let him get away with it.”

 The case is expected to go to the jury for deliberation Wednesday. If convicted, Momeni faces 26 years to life in prison.