Donald Trump has claimed that some internal communications from his campaign have been hacked, attributing the breach to the Iranian government due to past tensions between himself and Iran.
Following a report by Politico that it had started receiving emails in July from an anonymous source providing authentic documents from inside Trump’s campaign, including a report on potential vulnerabilities of running mate JD Vance, the Trump campaign released a statement.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign entities hostile to the United States, aiming to interfere with the 2024 election and create disorder in our democratic process,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Cheung added, “The Iranians know that President Trump will end their reign of terror just as he did during his first term.”
Late Saturday night, Trump announced on his Truth Social app that Microsoft had informed the campaign of an Iranian hack on one of its websites. He placed blame on Iran, stating they “only managed to access publicly available information,” but did not provide further details on the breach.
The Trump campaign also referenced a report from Microsoft researchers, which revealed that Iranian government-linked hackers had attempted to infiltrate the account of a “high-ranking official” in a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The hackers had taken control of an account belonging to a former political advisor and used it to target the official.
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York responded by stating that “the Iranian government neither possesses nor has any intention or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”
The Iranian U.N. mission also told Reuters that their cyber capabilities are “defensive and proportional to the threats they face,” denying any plans for cyberattacks.
During his presidency, Trump had fraught relations with Iran, notably ordering the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrawing from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal.
Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there is no indication that the suspect was linked to Iran, it was reported last month that the U.S. had intelligence on an Iranian plot against Trump, which Iran has denied.
