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Former President\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0presidential campaign said Saturday that it has been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.<\/p>\n The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran\u2019s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft\u00a0issued a report<\/a>\u00a0detailing foreign agents\u2019 attempts to interfere in the\u00a0U.S. campaign in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending \u201ca spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on \u201cforeign sources hostile to the United States.\u201d The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Politico first reported Saturday on the hack. The outlet reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source \u2014 an AOL email account identified only as \u201cRobert\u201d \u2014 passed along what appeared to be a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen.\u00a0JD Vance<\/a>. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.<\/p>\n \u201cThese documents were obtained illegally\u201d and \u201cintended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n He pointed to the Microsoft report issued Friday and its conclusions that \u201cIranian hackers broke into the account of a \u2018high ranking official\u2019 on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump\u2019s selection of a vice presidential nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,\u201d Cheung said, adding a warning that \u201cany media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America\u2019s enemies and doing exactly what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to Microsoft\u2019s report, Iran\u2019s United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks in the U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n Cheung did not immediately respond to questions about the campaign\u2019s interactions with Microsoft on the matter. Microsoft said Saturday it had no comment beyond its\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0and Friday\u00a0report<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that report, Microsoft stated that \u201cforeign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.\u201d<\/p>\n The analysis continued: \u201cIranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran\u2019s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRecent activity suggests the Iranian regime \u2014 along with the Kremlin \u2014 may be equally engaged in election 2024,\u201d Microsoft concluded.<\/p>\n Specifically, the report detailed that in June 2024, an Iranian military intelligence unit, Mint Sandstorm, sent a phishing email to an American presidential campaign via the compromised account of a former adviser.<\/p>\n \u201cThe phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n\n