WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some internal documents and communications had been hacked and leaked to a news organization − and blamed it on “foreign sources hostile to the United States” intent on interfering with the presidential election.
The acknowledgment by the campaign came after Politico reported it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents that purported to be from inside the Trump campaign operation.
"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,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Cheung did not say why the campaign believed the hack came from hostile foreign operatives, or whether it had been briefed on any intrusions by U.S. intelligence or law enforcement agencies or private cybersecurity firms. But he cited a new report issued by Microsoft on Friday that said Iran is ramping up its digital election-meddling activity to try and influence the election, including by targeting one presidential campaign with a malicious email phishing attack.
More:Iran increasingly cyber-meddling in upcoming US election, Microsoft says in new warning
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Cheung suggested Iran was responsible, 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. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want."
Microsoft had no comment on which campaign had been targeted by Iran. But it said an Iranian group connected with Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent what’s known as 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 Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which recently issued warnings about Iran's efforts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election, did not return requests seeking comment Saturday.
Spear phishing is a common method of cyberattack that hackers use to steal sensitive information or install malware on the devices of specific victims. They are considered very effective and difficult to prevent. Russian cyber operatives used the technique in 2016 to obtain and leak internal emails from a top campaign official for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Microsoft also said the same Iranian hacking group that targeted one of the current presidential campaigns also unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. It did not specify which current presidential campaign or former presidential candidate was targeted. “We’ve since notified those targeted,” it said in a statement accompanying its new report.
Cheung said the effort reported by Microsoft to target an unspecified campaign official “coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a Vice Presidential nominee.” Trump announced his selection of Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio on July 15.
POLITICO, which first reported the campaign’s claim of a foreign intrusion, said it had not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation. USA TODAY also could not corroborate the POLITICO report. USA TODAY has not received or examined copies of any documents.
A POLITICO spokesperson declined to comment.
In its report, POLITICO, said it began receiving emails July 22 from an anonymous account.
“Over the course of the past few weeks, the person – who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as ‘Robert’ – relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official,” POLITICO said.
A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Vance, dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents, said POLITICO, which said two people familiar with the documents verified that they were authentic.
“One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file,” POLITICO said. The person emailing POLITICO also said they had a “variety of documents from (Trump’s) legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions,” POLITICO reported.
'Russia, if you're listening'
Despite Cheung’s call for any hacked documents not to be used, Trump all but invited Russia to hack his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2016, saying he would "love to see" private emails from the former secretary of State. Trump welcomed such a scenario after Wikileaks published emails of Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee officials that were hacked by Russia.
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump told reporters at a news conference near Miami. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Christropher Krebs, a top former cybersecurity in the Trump administration, said all Americans should be concerned about the reports of a new campaign hack from a foreign nation state.
"Buckle up," Krebs said in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. As the government's election securitychief, Krebs was fired by Trump after describing the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost as the most secure in history.
"Someone is running the 2016 playbook, expect continued efforts to stoke fires in society and go after election systems. ... I’m taking this seriously & have it on good authority it’s the real deal. You should too."
