Trump campaign says it has been hacked
Politico reported earlier Saturday that it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s 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,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to CNN.
Cheung pointed to a recent report published by Microsoft that said Iranian operatives had ramped up their attempts to influence and monitor the US presidential election by creating fake news outlets targeting liberal and conservative voters and by trying to hack an unnamed presidential campaign.
“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. This comes after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy,” Cheung said, referring to the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally last month.
Cheung 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. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”
Still, it’s not clear whether Iran was responsible for the hack. CNN has reached out to the Iranian mission to the United Nations for comment.
Microsoft declined to comment on the hack to CNN beyond its previous report.
When asked whether the Trump campaign had been in contact with law enforcement, a campaign official said it would not discuss those kinds of conversations.
CNN has reached out to the FBI, Justice Department and Secret Service for comment. CNN has also reached out to the White House about whether President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been briefed.
Politico reported it had received emails that contained internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official and a research dossier the campaign had put together on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The dossier included what the Trump campaign identified as Vance’s potential vulnerabilities. The outlet was also sent part of a research document about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who had been among the contenders to join Trump on the GOP ticket.
When reached by CNN, Politico said it does not have any additional comment at this time.
In 2016, days before the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee server. Those emails included comments from DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz that suggested the committee was favoring Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary. Wasserman Schultz resigned in the aftermath of the leak. Officials later said they thought the cyberattack was linked to Russia.
After the hack, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s private server and release her emails. He later said he was joking.
Trump regularly attacked Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and led his supporters in chants of “Lock her up!” at his campaign rallies. There was a federal investigation into Clinton’s handling of her emails, but she was never charged with a crime.
The Politico report about receiving emails from Trump's campaign operation raises concerns about potential interference in the 2024 elections, given the documented history of foreign actors, such as Iran, attempting to influence political processes. The Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, strongly condemned the alleged illegal sourcing of these documents, suggesting they aimed to sow chaos and interfere with the elections.
In light of the reported attempts by Iran to manipulate politics, one must question the role of foreign involvement in domestic political affairs and the impact it could have on the integrity of elections.
