FBI investigates alleged Iranian hack of Trump campaign documents

WASHINGTON — The FBI said Monday it is investigating allegations that confidential documents from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were stolen in a cyber intrusion days after the campaign said it had been hacked by Iran.

The FBI released a brief statement saying, “We can confirm that the FBI is investigating this matter.”

A person familiar with the matter said the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign was also the target of suspected Iranian cyber intrusion that is under investigation by the FBI. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

The Trump campaign did not provide specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the statement came shortly after Microsoft issued a report detailing attempts by foreign agents to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election. The report cited a case of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official from a presidential campaign to from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

Politico reported Saturday that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source – an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” – passed along what appeared to be a dossier of research the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump chose Vance as his running mate.

“These documents were obtained illegally” and “were intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.

Vice President Harris’ campaign said in a statement: “Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches in our systems.” He declined to answer whether he had identified any state-based intrusion attempts.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, when asked about the Trump campaign’s allegations, denied being involved.

However, Iran has long been suspected of carrying out hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Tehran has also long threatened to retaliate against Trump for the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani.

In its report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence in relation to the 2024 US elections began slowly but has steadily accelerated over the past six months due initially to Russian operations but more recently to Iranian activity.”

The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber influence operations have been a consistent feature over at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns by appearing later in the election season and by employing cyberattacks more oriented toward election conduct than influencing voters.”

“Recent activity suggests that the Iranian regime – along with the Kremlin – may be equally involved in the 2024 elections,” Microsoft concluded.