The Trump campaign announced on Saturday that its internal communications were compromised in a cyberattack by what it described as a “hostile foreign entity.”
The campaign said the breach was from “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a recent Microsoft intelligence report that linked the attack to hackers affiliated with the Iranian armed forces.
According to the Microsoft report, the hackers sent a spear-phishing email in June to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign, which the Trump campaign alleges targeted them. The stolen information was reportedly shared with Politico starting in late July.
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An individual identifying themselves as “Robert” used an AOL email address to contact Politico and shared the compromised communications.
“I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from,” the individual told Politico, adding that disclosing their source would “compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”
The leaked communications reportedly included internal Trump campaign discussions and a large document related to the vetting process of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
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“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,” Cheung said. “On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”
In his statement Saturday, Cheung pointed to those reports, saying, “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.”
It remains unclear whether Politico intends to publish more of the hacked materials.
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