The FBI confirmed on Monday that it is looking into allegations that confidential documents from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were stolen in a cyber attack. This investigation comes after Trump’s campaign declared it had been hacked by Iran.
The FBI released a short statement, stating, “We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter.”
A source familiar with the situation confirmed that the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign was also targeted in the suspected Iranian cyber attack currently under investigation by the FBI. The source spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss the specifics of the investigation.
The Trump campaign did not provide any specific evidence of Iran’s involvement. However, this claim was made shortly after Microsoft issued a report detailing attempts by foreign agents to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election. The report cited an instance in June where an Iranian military intelligence unit sent “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”
Politico reported on 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 research dossier the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.
“These documents were obtained illegally” and “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
The Vice President Harris’ campaign stated, “Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems.” It declined to comment on whether it had identified any state-based intrusion attempts.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations, when asked about the Trump campaign’s claim, denied any involvement.
However, Iran has long been suspected of conducting hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran has also repeatedly threatened to retaliate against Trump for the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
In its report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 U.S. election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.”
The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.”
“Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime—along with the Kremlin—may be equally engaged in election 2024,” Microsoft concluded.