NEW YORK (AP) — Over the weekend, details emerged about a suspected Iranian cyber attack in the election campaign of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumpwhich could potentially lead to the theft of internal campaign documents.
The FBI is Investigation into the matter and attempts to undermine President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which Election campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race.
Here’s what we know:
What happened?
Trump’s presidential campaign said on Saturday that it had been hacked and that confidential internal documents had been stolen and distributed. Iranian actors were to blame, it said.
On the same day, Politico published revealed it had received leaked internal documents from the Trump campaign by email from a person identified only as “Robert.” The outlet said the documents included investigative material on Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and Senator Marco Rubio, who was also being considered as a potential vice president.
Two other news outlets, the New York Times and the Washington Post, also said they had received leaked material. Neither of them gave details about what they were looking for, but only described the documents in broad terms.
It is still unclear whether the materials obtained by news outlets are related to Trump’s alleged campaign hacking. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung suggested there was a connection. He said the documents were “illegally obtained” and warned that “any media outlet or news outlet that reprints documents or internal communications is following orders from America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”
The FBI confirmed Monday that it is investigating the break-in into the Trump campaign. Two people familiar with the matter said the FBI is also investigating attempts to gain access to the Biden-Harris campaign.
Why does Trump blame Iran?
Trump’s campaign team did not provide any concrete evidence that Iran was behind the hack. But it pointed to a Microsoft report on Friday detailing an Iranian attempt to subvert a presidential campaign in June.
According to the Microsoft report, an Iranian military intelligence agency had sent “a spear phishing email to a senior presidential campaign official from a compromised email account of a former senior adviser.” Spear phishing is a form of cyberattack in which an attacker impersonates a known or trusted sender, often to install malware or collect sensitive information.
The technology company would not disclose which campaign or adviser was affected, but said it had notified them. Since then, both Trump and Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to the former president, have said they were contacted by Microsoft about alleged cyberattacks.
“We have just been informed by Microsoft Corporation that one of our many websites has been hacked by the Iranian government – that is never a nice thing!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Grant Smith, a lawyer for Stone, said his client “has been contacted by Microsoft and the FBI regarding this matter and continues to work with those organizations.” He declined further comment.
What does the government say?
U.S. State Department officials declined to speculate on allegations that Iran was behind the hacking, but a spokesman said it was consistent with Tehran’s past practice of cyberattacks and deception.
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“These recent attempts to interfere in the US elections are nothing new for the Iranian regime,” spokesman Vedant Patel said on Monday.
US intelligence officials declined to comment on the incident and referred it to the FBI, which said only that it was conducting an investigation.
When asked about the Trump campaign’s allegations, the Iranian mission to the United Nations denied any involvement.
“We do not believe such reports,” the mission told the Associated Press. “The Iranian government has neither the intention nor the motive to interfere in the US presidential election.”
However, Iran has long been suspected of conducting hacking attacks against its enemies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Tehran also threatened Trump with retaliation for the drone strike he ordered in 2020 that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani.
Was Harris also the target?
Harris’ campaign declined to say whether it had detected any government intrusions, saying only that it closely monitors cyber threats and has no knowledge of any breaches of its systems.
However, two people familiar with the matter said the Biden-Harris campaign was also targeted in the alleged Iranian cyberattack. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation.
At least three Biden-Harris campaign staffers were targeted with phishing emails, but investigators have found no evidence the attempt was successful, one of the informants said. The attempts occurred before Biden dropped out of the race.
The FBI began investigating the cyber incident in June, and intelligence officials believe Iran was behind the attacks, the person said.
Where have I heard this before?
The suspicion of a hacker attack followed by the distribution of election campaign material abroad may sound familiar to you because something similar has happened before – namely in 2016.
This year A Russian hacker attack exposed emails to and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. The website Wikileaks published a wealth of these messages, which were widely reported in news agencies.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday pointed to the repeated use of this tactic against the United States, saying it shows that foreign adversaries “are seeking to create chaos and undermine our democratic process.”
“So we must stand firm and ensure that our cybersecurity can withstand such attacks in November,” he said in a statement.
Experts say the recent apparent hacking of Trump’s campaign may not be the last such attempt to influence the U.S. election, whether through cyberattacks or online disinformation. Both Iran and Russia, for example, have begun targeting Americans with fake news websites and other social media content that appears to be aimed at influencing voters, Microsoft and U.S. intelligence officials said.
The country’s former top election security official, Chris Krebs, warned on the social platform X that Americans should take this threat seriously.
“You may not like the victim, but your opponent doesn’t give a damn who you like or don’t like,” he said of Trump’s campaign ploy. “American voters decide American elections. It should stay that way.”
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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, David Klepper and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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