WASHINGTON: The campaign of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Saturday that some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.
The campaign's statement came shortly after news website Politico revealed it began receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from inside Trump's operation, including a report on the “potential vulnerabilities” of his running mate JD Vance.
“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States, with the intent to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Reuters has not independently verified the identity of the alleged hackers or their motivation.
The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from Microsoft MSFT.O According to the report, hackers linked to the Iranian government attempted to break into the account of a “senior official” in a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The hackers had taken over an account belonging to a former political adviser and then used it to attack the official, the report said. The report did not provide further details on the identities of the targets.
TO Microsoft The spokesman declined to name the affected officials or provide additional details after the report was published.
Iran's Foreign Ministry and its representative to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Friday, in response to From Microsoft Following its findings, Iran's mission to the U.N. in New York told Reuters its cyber capabilities were “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces” and it had no plans to launch cyberattacks.
“The US presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere,” Iran's mission to the UN said.
The former president maintained tense relations with Iran during his tenure. Under Trump, the US killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
“Iranians know that President Trump will stop his reign of terror just as he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said.
Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there have been no suggestions that the suspect was linked to Iran, CNN Last month, it was reported that the United States had information about an Iranian plot against Trump. Iran has denied such allegations.
Late last month, a senior intelligence official told reporters at a briefing that Tehran and Moscow are maintaining their same presidential preferences as in previous cycles, with Iranian agents attempting to bring down the Republican ticket while Russia has made efforts to smear Democrats, according to previous intelligence community assessments.
