Iran denies it hacked Trump campaign's communications

Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign on Saturday said its communications had been hacked and suggested Iran was to blame, citing past hostilities between the former US president and Iran without providing direct evidence.

The hack was first reported by Politico, which said it had begun receiving emails in July containing internal Trump campaign documents from an anonymous account.

Those documents, released over a few weeks, included a dossier on JD Vance, a US senator and Trump’s vice presidential pick, according to the report.

“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 spokesman Steven Cheung said.

Iran denied any involvement, saying it has "no purpose or motivation to interfere in the US election."

There is "no credit" to the report, state-affiliated media reported on Sunday.

The campaign cited a report this week from Microsoft that detailed increasing efforts by Iran to target the US election, including fake news sites to influence voter opinion and hacks to obtain intelligence on political campaigns.

Among the actions in the report was a so-called spear phishing email in June to “a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior adviser”.

Microsoft, which didn’t identify the campaign, said that the attempt was from an Iranian group connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Microsoft said it had “notified those targeted”.

Mr Cheung said the hack “coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee”.

Mr Trump announced his vice presidential selection in mid-July, and Mr Cheung also cited recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate the former president separate from the attempt on his life by a gunman at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

That Iranian threat appeared to be linked to a broader pattern of threats against former Trump administration officials stemming from the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, in January 2020 – an attack ordered by Mr Trump, who was president at the time.

“Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” Mr Cheung said.