Joe McConnell
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Donald Trump’s campaign said several of his internal emails had been hacked, blaming Iran for the breach and accusing Tehran of trying to “interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos in our democratic process.”
The former president’s campaign officials did not provide direct evidence to support the claim, but cited a recent MicrosoVscek report that Iranian hackers had broken into the email account of a senior U.S. presidential campaign official, as well as recent warnings of threats to Trump’s life from Tehran.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, with the intent to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos in our democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.
He added: “The Iranians know that President Trump will end their reign of terror, just as he did in his first four years in the White House.”
The former president’s entourage disclosed the cyberattack aVsceker the news site Politico said it had received emails from an anonymous account containing documents from his campaign.
The scope of the breach remains unclear. Politico said it began receiving emails in late July, including internal campaign communications and a dossier on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
In a report released Friday, MicrosoVscek said a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had compromised the account of a “high-ranking presidential campaign official” with a spear-phishing email. The Trump campaign noted that this coincided “with the tight timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”
The U.S. intelligence community has repeatedly warned of Iran’s increasingly aggressive foreign influence efforts. Avril Haines, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said in July that Tehran had sought to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, particularly by stoking and funding ongoing protests against Israel’s war with Hamas.
The cyberattack comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East, as the United States and its allies seek to prevent an all-out war in the region following Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Tehran and Beirut late last month.
During his presidency, Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, triggering a crisis in relations with the Islamic State that the Biden administration has quietly sought to repair by pursuing secret talks aimed at calming tensions. Trump has signaled that he would again take a hard line on Iran if returned to office.
