Trump campaign says its internal communications were hacked
Former President Trump’s campaign said some of its internal communications were recently hacked by foreign sources.
The breach was first reported by Politico after the outlet received emails from an anonymous account with documents from the Trump campaign.
The campaign said the leak came from “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” His campaign pointed to a report released Friday from Microsoft that said Iran is targeting the 2024 election.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill.
Cheung said the report from Microsoft found Iranian hackers “broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’” on the presidential campaign in June 2024.
After Trump’s assassination attempt last month at a Pennsylvania rally, the Biden administration claimed that Iran made threats to kill the former president. Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied the reports, calling them “malicious.”
Cheung noted the timing of the campaign hack and the “Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.”
“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”
Politico said it began receiving emails from an AOL email account from someone identified as “Robert” on July 22.
In the documents shared with the outlet was a research dossier from February on Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). A similar document was sent about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was also on Trump’s VP shortlist.
Robert told Politico that they had a “variety of documents” from Trump’s legal battles and internal campaign discussions.
When asked how they obtained the documents, the person told the outlet, “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”
It's not known how much information the hacker was able to obtain, but it shows the Trump campaign experienced a large security breach, the outlet reported.