The personal email accounts of Roger Stone, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, were the target of a foreign cyberattack on Trump’s campaign team, according to media reports.
The FBI confirmed in a brief statement on Monday that it is investigating allegations that confidential documents were stolen from Trump’s campaign team. On Saturday, the team said it had been hacked and blamed Iranian military intelligence for the data theft.
“We can confirm that the FBI is investigating this case,” the office told the Associated Press (AP).
Trump’s campaign said over the weekend that the attack was “a spear phishing email to a senior presidential campaign official sent from a compromised email account of a former senior adviser.” The former president’s team did not provide evidence, although Microsoft released a report on Thursday detailing that “significant influence activity by Iranian actors” seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election had increased in recent months.
On Monday, The Washington Post said that Stone, a former Republican political adviser, had been informed by investigators that his private email account had been “compromised.”
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“I really don’t know any more about it. And I’m cooperating,” Stone told Post. “It’s all very strange.”
Stone worked as an adviser to Trump’s campaign in 2016. A few years into the former president’s first term, Stone was found guilty on seven counts – five of lying to Congress and one each of witness tampering and obstructing a congressional committee investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Stone was pardoned by Trump in 2020.
CNN also reported, citing multiple sources, that Stone’s personal email accounts were the target of the cyberattack.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign team via email on Monday for further comment.
Politico reported over the weekend that the website had received emails from an anonymous AOL email account simply named “Robert” containing internal campaign documents about the vetting process of Ohio Senator JD Vance, who was chosen as Trump’s vice presidential nominee last month.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement on Saturday that the documents were “illegally obtained” and that they were “designed to influence the 2024 election and create chaos throughout our democratic process.”
When asked by AP, the Iranian mission to the United Nations denied the allegations from Trump’s campaign team and said: “We do not believe such reports. The Iranian government has no intention or motive to interfere in the US presidential election, nor does it harbor any such intention or motivation.”
A person familiar with the matter also told AP that the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also targeted in the cyberattack and that the FBI is also investigating that breach. A spokesperson for Harris’ presidential campaign told AP: “Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats and we are not aware of any breaches of our systems.”
Newsweek also sent an email to the FBI’s national press office on Monday seeking additional information.
