Trump blames Iran for hack in his first public comments on the incident

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed Iran for hacking his campaign and praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the incident.

“They are looking at it and they're doing it very professionally, and it looks like it's Iran,” Trump told reporters as he arrived to cast his vote in the Florida primary in Palm Beach.

Pushed about what exactly the agency told him, Trump responded: “I don't want to say exactly, but it was Iran.”

Trump’s campaign confirmed on Saturday that it was hacked, POLITICO first reported , after POLITICO began receiving internal documents from an anonymous account. The campaign immediately blamed “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a Microsoft Threat Analysis report released Friday that found “Iranian actors have recently laid the groundwork for influence operations aimed at US audiences and potentially seeking to impact the 2024 US presidential election.”

“Looking forward, we expect Iranian actors will employ cyberattacks against institutions and candidates,” the report said.

The FBI confirmed on Monday that it had launched the probe, but declined to elaborate on its scope or on any suspects. The agency started the investigation in June and is also looking into spear-phishing attempts aimed at Biden-Harris campaign officials, POLITICO reported .

An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks Wednesday.

Trump said the hack had occurred because “Iran is no friend of mine, a lot of bad signals get sent.”

“The reason is because I was strong on Iran and I was protecting people in the Middle East that maybe they aren't so happy about that,” Trump added. “That's what it seems to be, Iran.”

The FBI suspects Iran is behind the attacks on both campaigns, the Washington Post reported Monday . It remains unclear, however, who was responsible for sending hacked documents to the Post and POLITICO.

Iran has denied involvement in the hack, according to state media .