Trump's Campaign Accuses Islamic Republic of Hacking Internal Communications to Interfere in Elections; White House Condemns

Donald Trump's campaign, the Republican nominee for the U.S. presidential election, accused the Islamic Republic on Saturday, August 20, of hacking 'some internal communications' with the aim of interfering in the presidential election scheduled for November. Steven Chung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, stated: 'Enemies of the United States have unlawfully obtained campaign documents to interfere in the 2024 elections and create chaos in our democratic process.' The website Politico was the first media outlet to report that it received hacked documents from Trump's campaign through an anonymous email account. According to Politico, these emails were sent starting from August 1, and in recent weeks, an individual identifying himself as 'Robert' has sent documents that appear to be internal correspondence from a senior official in Trump's campaign. One of these documents was a 271-page report from Trump's campaign regarding J.D. Vance. Additionally, documents related to investigations about Senator Marco Rubio, who has been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate for Trump, were also sent to Politico. Politico reported that the anonymous sender of the emails, when asked about the source of these documents, only stated that disclosing this information puts him 'at risk' and that legally, the publication of these documents could impose restrictions on Politico. Microsoft also announced on Friday, August 19, that hackers linked to the Iranian government had attempted to infiltrate the account of a 'senior official' in the U.S. presidential election campaign in recent months. The White House condemned any foreign attempts to interfere in U.S. elections. According to CNN, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council stated: 'As we have said many times, the Biden-Harris administration strongly condemns any efforts by foreign governments or entities to interfere in our electoral process or undermine trust in democratic institutions.' This spokesperson added that regarding the details of Trump's campaign's allegations, the National Security Council referred the matter to the Department of Justice but emphasized that the White House takes any reports of such activities very seriously. CNN has reached out to the Islamic Republic's representation at the United Nations, the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice for comments on this matter. Last month, Donald Trump also survived an assassination attempt. CNN reported that the United States was aware of a plot by the Islamic Republic against Donald Trump. However, the Islamic Republic denied these allegations. The former U.S. president ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the then-commander of the Quds Force, during his tenure in 2020 and withdrew from the nuclear agreement, the JCPOA. Iranian leaders have repeatedly emphasized avenging the killing of Qassem Soleimani from Donald Trump and his team.