According to a new report — the details of which are still under investigation — Politico received emails containing “internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official,” sent from an AOL email account by a person identifying themselves only as “Robert,” and Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, is pointing towards “foreign sources hostile to the United States” as being responsible for the data breach.
According to Politico, the emails from the hacker included “a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23,” some of which detailed Vance’s past criticisms of Trump — identified in the document as “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.” The mysterious situation — which began in July — has yet to be commented on by Iranian government officials, presumed to be behind the breach.
“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,” Cheung said in a statement shared by the outlet. “On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”
Per Politico, when “Robert” was asked how they obtained the documents, they replied, “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”
“The Iranians know that [former] President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said of the campaign’s suspicions.