The FBI confirmed Monday it was launching an investigation after the Trump campaign said it was hacked and some of its internal documents were leaked.
“We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter,” the agency said in an email, declining to respond to other questions from The Hill.
A Friday report from Microsoft pinned the blame for the hack on Iran, declining at the time to identify the Trump campaign as the target.
An Iran-baked group “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor,” the company said.
The confirmation of the investigation is a shift for the FBI, which said over the weekend only that it was aware of the hacking allegations through news reports.
U.S. agencies have thus far failed to comment on the claims that Iran was responsible for the hack, even as recent intelligence community reports have noted growing Iranian efforts to influence the U.S. election.
“This is something we’ve raised for some time, raised concerns that Iranian cyber actors have been seeking to influence elections around the world including those happening in the United States,” John Kirby, the White House’s national security communications adviser, told reporters Monday.
“These latest attempts to interfere in U.S. elections is nothing new for the Iranian regime, which from our vantage point has attempted to undermine democracies for many years now.”
A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released last month noted Iranian efforts designed to “fuel distrust in U.S. political institutions and increase social discord.”
“The IC has observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election, probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States. Tehran relies on vast webs of online personas and propaganda mills to spread disinformation,” the report states, including being particularly active on exacerbating tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Earlier this summer intelligence agencies also said they learned of an Iranian plot to carry out an assassination attempt on former President Trump.
The Trump campaign on Saturday also identified Iran as being behind the alleged hack.
“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 spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied the reports, calling them “malicious.”
As part of the hack, new outlets were contacted by a figure who shared vetting materials reviewing Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).
Laura Kelly contributed.
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