Trump campaign says hackers nabbed internal documents to influence election

The Trump campaign says its emails and documents were stolen by “foreign sources” who aimed to “sow chaos” and influence the 2024 presidential election, numerous media outlets reported over the weekend.

On Saturday, Politico said it’s been receiving Trump campaign documents from an anonymous AOL email for months; going by only “Robert,” the apparent leaker included a 271-page vetting report that described Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s publicly-known vulnerabilities, as well as a partial dossier on Florida Senator Marco Rubio. “Robert” claimed to possess Donald Trump’s “legal and court documents” as well as “internal campaign discussions,” per Politico.

“Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told reporters in response to the news. Cheung pointed to an August 9 report from Microsoft, which detailed a June phishing attack that targeted an unnamed, “high-ranking” campaign official using a former advisor’s compromised account.

According to Microsoft, hackers connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent the spear-phishing email, which included a “fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.” The group responsible is known by several names, including Mint Sandstorm and Charming Kitten, Microsoft said. Over the past several years, the same group has been blamed for targeting the World Health Organization, sending U.S. officials holiday greetings riddled with malware, and plenty of other attacks.

Microsoft said in its report this week that it’s tracked the rise of “significant influence activity by Iranian actors.” The company added that Iran-linked campaigns have stood out from Russian efforts “for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.”

A hacking group known as Guccifer 2.0 accessed Democratic National Committee emails in 2016 through a spear-phishing attack — a phishing attempt targeting a specific individual or group. The hackers leaked thousands of DNC emails and documents ahead of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, leading to the resignation of then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Justice Department charges against 12 Russian military officers.