FBI investigates Trump campaign's claim of sensitive documents hacked by Iran
American flags fly outside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images
WASHINGTON - The FBI said it's looking into allegations that sensitive documents from the Trump campaign were stolen in a cyber intrusion.
The campaign claims it had been hacked by Iran.
What happened?
The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim came shortly after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024. The report cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending "a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor."
Iran’s mission to the United Nations, when asked about the claims of the Trump campaign, denied being involved.
What did the FBI say
The FBI released a brief statement reading, "We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter."
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Two people familiar with the matter said the Biden-Harris campaign was also targeted in the suspected Iranian cyber intrusion that is under FBI investigation. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation.
At least three staffers in the Biden-Harris campaign were targeted with phishing emails, but investigators have uncovered no evidence the attempt was successful, one of the people said. The attempts came before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race
The FBI began investigating that cyber incident in June and intelligence officials believe Iran was behind the attempts, that person said. Officials have also been in touch with tech companies in recent months about the possibility that people linked to the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns were being targeted through email.