The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed to multiple outlets Monday it is investigating an alleged hack into former President Donald Trump’s campaign, after the campaign said Iran was responsible for an intrusion—and CNN reported the FBI believes hackers used the personal email account of a campaign staffer to gain access.
The Trump campaign confirmed the hack Saturday after Politico reported receiving documents from ... [+]
The FBI confirmed to reporters it was investigating allegations that sensitive documents were stolen from the Trump campaign but gave few other details.
Two unnamed people familiar with the matter told CNN the FBI suspects the hackers breached the personal email account of a senior Trump campaign official in June in an effort to gain access to campaign networks.
The FBI also warned President Joe Biden’s campaign—now run by Vice President Kamala Harris—about potential threats from Iranian hackers, CNN reported (the campaign told the outlet it’s “not aware of any security breaches”).
The Trump campaign confirmed Saturday it had been hacked—and said Iran was the culprit—after Politico reported it was receiving emails from an “anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation,” including months-old vetting material on Trump’s soon-to-be running mate JD Vance.
Forbes has reached out to the FBI for confirmation.
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The Trump campaign did not provide any evidence that Iran was behind the attack, but cited a report from Microsoft released last Friday that said Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.” Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied being involved in the hack to the Associated Press, and the U.S. has not publicly accused Iran of hacking Trump’s campaign. However, Avril Haines, the director of National Intelligence, warned in July that “Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” Microsoft’s report last week seemed to have similar findings, saying it had seen “the emergence of significant influence activity by Iranian actors” over the past several months.