The Trump campaign said Saturday that its internal communications were hacked by Iran. In a post on Truth Social, former President Donald Trump said Microsoft alerted his campaign “that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government — Never a nice thing to do!”
Trump added that the security breach exposed information that was already publicly available. His campaign suggested foreign countries were attempting to meddle in the election and cited a Friday report from Microsoft.
The report said Mint Sandstorm, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence unit, “sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior adviser” in June 2024. This group also “unsuccessfully attempted to log in to an account belonging to a former presidential candidate.” But Microsoft’s report did not name the Trump campaign as the target.
“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,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
“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.”
News outlets receiving emails with Trump campaign’s documents
Politico has received emails from an anonymous account of the Trump campaign’s internal communications. One of the emails included a dossier on Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who emerged as Trump’s pick among a large pool of contenders. This dossier, dated Feb. 23, also included Vance’s “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.” The New York Times also reportedly receiving the information.
The news outlet previously reported the U.S. intelligence community received evidence of Iran working to assassinate Trump leading up to the unconnected attempt on Trump’s life at the July 13 rally.
“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.
As the Times reported, Russia is keeping a low profile so far in this year’s election, instead focusing on the 2024 Olympic Games, which it was barred from, and the war in Ukraine.
The Trump campaign received a boost during the 2016 presidential election when Russian hackers published internal and private emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. WikiLeaks published these emails closer to the end of the race, which Trump won.