Donald Trump's US presidential campaign said on Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past skirmishes between Trump and Iran without offering direct evidence.
The Republican campaign’s announcement came shortly after news website Politico reported it began receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from inside the Trump operation, including reports about “potential vulnerabilities” in vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democracy,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Late Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social app that Microsoft had just notified the campaign that Iran had hacked one of its websites. He blamed Iran, adding that they “could only get information that is public.” He did not elaborate on the attack.
Reuters has not independently verified the identities of the alleged hackers or their motives.
The Trump campaign pointed to a report Friday from Microsoft researchers that said hackers with ties to the Iranian government tried to break into the account of a “senior official” during the U.S. presidential campaign in June. The report said the hackers took over an account belonging to a former political adviser and used it to target the official. The report did not provide further details about the identities of the targets.
A Microsoft spokesperson declined to name the officials targeted or provide further details after the report was published.
Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York said in an email that “the Iranian government does not have or harbor any intention or motive to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.”
“We do not believe any such reports,” the agency added in response to the Trump campaign’s accusations.
On Friday, in response to Microsoft's findings, Iran's mission to the United Nations told Reuters that its cyber capabilities were "defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces" and that it had no plans to conduct cyberattacks.
The former president had a tense relationship with Iran while in office. Under Trump, the United States killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrew from the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran.
“The Iranians know that President Trump will end their terrorist regime just like he did during his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said.
Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there is no suggestion the suspect was linked to Iran, CNN reported last month that the United States had intelligence of 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 remained at the same presidential priorities as in previous cycles, when Iranian agents tried to undermine the Republican ticket while Russia worked to smear Democrats, according to previous assessments by the intelligence community.
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