Donald Trump’s campaign says it was hacked, blames Iran

The campaign of Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Saturday some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.

The campaign statement came shortly after news website Politico revealed it began receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from inside Trump’s operation, including a report about running mate J.D. Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities”.

“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 spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Late on Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social app that Microsoft had just informed the campaign that Iran had hacked one of its websites. He cast blame on Iran, adding they were “only able to get publicly available information.” He did not elaborate further on the hack.

Reuters has not independently verified the identity of the alleged hackers or their motivation.

The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from Microsoft researchers that said Iranian government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on a US presidential campaign in June.

The hackers had taken over an account belonging to a former political adviser and then used it to target the official, the report said. That report did not provide further details on the targets’ identities. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to name the targeted officials or provide additional details after the report was published.