According to Donald Trump’s campaign, Iranian operatives were the intended targets of a breach that compromised some internal communications.
On Saturday, the US news website Politico said that it had received campaign information, including reports on Ohio Senator JD Vance—Trump’s running mate—through email.
A campaign spokeswoman informed the BBC that the papers were sought out from hostile foreign sources with the intention of interfering with the 2024 election.
Politico announced that it has verified the papers’ legitimacy. Neither the BBC nor any third party has checked the claims.
There was a lack of specificity and proof that the Iranian government or Iranian hackers were involved in the document release, according to the campaign.
An unidentified US presidential candidate’s campaign was hacked in June, according to a report issued by Microsoft the day before.
A spear phishing email, which attempts to appear legitimate in order to trick the recipient into clicking on a malicious link, was sent to the campaign, according to Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).
“In recent months, there has been a noticeable increase in influence operations carried out by Iranian entities,” stated the MTAC study.
“Coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee” was the statement made by Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung on the June hacking effort, as cited in the MTAC findings.
He said, “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,” Mr. Cheung told the press.
An AOL email account belonging to an individual named “Robert” started sending emails to Politico in late July, according to the publication.
Based on publicly accessible evidence about Vance’s past record and utterances, the news source stated that the Vance file was 271 pages lengthy. Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida and a potential vice presidential candidate, was also mentioned in the email as having given portions of a study document.
In order to avoid any embarrassing surprises, presidential campaigns often investigate possible vice presidential nominees. Mr. Vance’s well-known past criticisms of Trump were reportedly marked as “potential vulnerabilities” in the dossier, according to Politico.
The research from Microsoft said: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three US election cycles.”
During the 2020 presidential race, Microsoft published a comparable dossier claiming that Iranian hackers had compromised presidential campaigns.
In a development unrelated to the attempted shooting in Pennsylvania last month, US security sources have reportedly warned of an Iranian conspiracy to eliminate Trump. On Tuesday, the US justice department announced the charges against a Pakistani national who is believed to have links to Iran. He is being held on suspicion of plotting the assassination of US officials, possibly including the former president.
Iranian officials have been approached by the BBC for comment.