WASHINGTON – The FBI said Monday it is investigating allegations that confidential documents from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were stolen in a cyberattack, just 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 case.”
A person familiar with the matter said the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign was also targeted in the alleged Iranian cyberattack, which is currently being investigated by the FBI. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation.
The Trump campaign did not provide any concrete evidence of Iranian involvement, but the claim came shortly after Microsoft released a report detailing attempts by foreign agents to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election. The report cited a case in which an Iranian military intelligence unit sent “a spear-phishing email to a senior presidential campaign official from a compromised email account of a former senior adviser” in June.
Politico reported Saturday that the site received emails from an anonymous account on July 22. The source – an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” – apparently forwarded a research dossier the campaign had apparently created on Republican vice presidential candidate Ohio Senator JD Vance. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump named Vance as his running mate.
“These documents were obtained illegally” and “were intended to influence the 2024 election and sow chaos in our democratic process,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
In a statement, Vice President Harris’ campaign team said: “Our campaign team vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats and we are not aware of any breaches of our systems.” It was not disclosed whether any government intrusion attempts were detected.
When asked about the Trump campaign’s allegations, the Iranian mission to the United Nations denied any involvement.
However, Iran has long been suspected of conducting hacking attacks against its enemies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Tehran has also long threatened Trump with retaliation for the drone strike he ordered in 2020 that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani.
Microsoft stated in its report that “malicious foreign influence on the 2024 U.S. election began slowly but has steadily increased over the past six months, initially driven by Russian activity but more recently by Iranian activity.”
The analysis continues: “Iranian cyber influence operations have been a staple of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations were notable and differed from Russian campaigns in that they occurred later in the election cycle and used cyberattacks aimed at voting behavior rather than voter influence.”
“Recent activity suggests that the Iranian regime – alongside the Kremlin – may be equally involved in the 2024 elections,” Microsoft concluded.
