The campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump confirmed Saturday that internal communications had been obtained by hackers and supplied to the Washington publication Politico. File Photo by David Jensen/EPA-EFE
Aug. 10 (UPI) — Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign has confirmed some of its internal communication have fallen into the hands of hackers, the Washington publication Politico reported Saturday.
The publication said its editorial staff had been sent apparently hacked Trump campaign communications from a source known as only as “Robert” and that campaign officials have confirmed their authenticity.
The Trump campaign blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” Politico reported.
In so doing, they cited a warning issued by Microsoft on Friday in which the tech giant said a hacker group run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as Mint Sandstorm had sent a “spear-phishing” email to a “high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”
The phishing e-mail contained a fake forward with a hyperlink directing traffic through an “actor-controlled domain” before redirecting to the listed domain, Microsoft said.
“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 spokesman Steven Cheung told Politico, adding, “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 declined to say, however, if the campaign had any specific knowledge linking Iran to the stolen communications.
The publication said it began receiving emails from an anonymous account on July 22, and that in recent weeks the sender, identified only as “Robert,” included what appeared to be a background dossier compiled earlier this year on Trump’s eventual choice for vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.
Two people familiar with the process confirmed the documents’ authenticity, Politico reported.