By Kanishka Singh and Nathan Layne
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The campaign of Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Saturday some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.
The campaign statement came after news website Politico said it began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation.
“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,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from Microsoft researchers that said Iran government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on the U.S. presidential campaign in June. That report did not provide further details on the official’s identity.
“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said.
The former president had tense relations with Iran while in office. Under Trump, the United States killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there have been no suggestions that the suspect was linked to Iran, CNN reported last month that the U.S. had intelligence about an Iranian plot against Trump. Iran has denied such charges.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Nathan Layne; Editing by Rod Nickel)
