Trump's campaign alleges foreign powers hacked its internal communications

Former President Donald Trump's campaign claimed Saturday that a foreign power hacked part of its internal communications.

According to POLITICO, the Trump campaign admitted to the cyberattack when the magazine began receiving emails from an anonymous account named "Robert" with important internal documents from the former president's campaign.

POLITICO reported that one of those communications was an investigative dossier on Senator JD Vance, Trump's running mate.

The Trump campaign, in a message to the outlet, blamed the attack on "foreign sources hostile to the United States," citing a recent report by Microsoft about Iranian hackers who "sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign."

"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," Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the campaign, told POLITICO. "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."

At the time, Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the controversial email or provide details about its complaint. The Trump campaign also declined to take direct aim at Iran, although it cited Microsoft's complaint.

According to POLITICO's explanation, on July 22, the media outlet began receiving emails from an anonymous account. This person, who used an AOL account and identified himself only as "Robert," sent internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official, including research on the JD Vance.

"A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them and granted anonymity to describe internal communications. One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file," the media outlet reported.

The document on JD Vance obtained by the media outlet contains 271 pages based on publicly available information about the senator's background and statements, including past critical statements against Trump identified as "potential vulnerabilities."

POLITICO also indicated that information was received on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was a top candidate to join Trump on the Republican ticket.