FBI Investigates After Trump Campaign Hacked By Iranians

The campaign of Republican presidental nominee Donald Trump acknowledged it has been hacked by Iranian government attackers, in an incident that recalls a similar hacking campaign that is believed to have had a critical influence on the 2016 elections.

The FBI said it was investigating the breach. Iran denied involvement.

A Trump campaign spokesperson acknowledged the hack after political news site Politico reported it began receiving internal documents from the Trump campaign from an anonymous account.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States,” said spokesperson Steven Cheung.

Campaign breach

Cheung cited a Microsoft advisory published on Friday that detailed numerous Iranian hacks targeting the 2024 US elections.

The advisory said an Iranian group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a spear-phishing email in June to a “high-ranking official” on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor.

The company did not name the official or specify which campaign was targeted.

Politico said it receive numerous documents from the anonymous AOL account over a period of several weeks, including a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, dated 23 February.

The documents were authentic, the outlet said, citing two people familiar with them.

The research file on Vance was based on publicly available materials about his past record and statements, and included a section titled “Potential Vulnerabilities” that detailed his previous criticisms of Trump.

The anonymous person said they had a “variety of documents” from Trump’s legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.

Last month reports from the US intelligence community indicated Iran was preparing plots against Trump due to his order in 2020 to assassinate Iranian military officer Qassem Soleimani.

Russian hack

In 2016, senior Democratic Party officials were hacked ahead of the presidential election, resulting in the release of embarrassing emails about the inner workings of the party and the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

National security officials later blamed the hack on Russia, specifically a group tracked as Fancy Bear that has carried out other hacks.

The documents were disseminated by third-party websites including WikiLeaks and are thought to have played a critical role in the outcome of the election, which was won by Trump.

During the campaign Trump repeatedly referred to the Democratic hacks with phrases such as, “I love WikiLeaks.”