US presidential election: Donald Trump's team claims to have suffered a hack, Iran suspected of being behind the incident

Trump's campaign claims it was hacked, accuses “foreign sources hostile to the United States” of “illegally” obtaining documents.

Republican candidate Donald Trump's campaign team claimed on Saturday, August 10, that it had been hacked, accusing "foreign sources" of leaking internal communications and a dossier on J.D. Vance, the former president's running mate.

Trump's team has suggested that Iran was behind the move, with media outlet Politico previously reporting that it had received emails containing information about the Republican's campaign from a source who declined to be identified.

“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States, with the intent of interfering in the 2024 election and wreaking havoc on our democratic process,”, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.

A phishing email sent in June

Cheung pointed to an incident report released by Microsoft this week indicating that Iranian hackers had “sent a phishing email in June to a senior presidential campaign official.”

Among the information shared with Politico was information about J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's running mate who is set to become his vice president if the Republican nominee is elected in November.

In 2016, the emails of the Democratic National Committee were also hacked, the leak revealing internal exchanges concerning Hillary Clinton, the candidate then chosen by the party to face Donald Trump.

The billionaire, winner of the presidential election that year, had been criticized for having encouraged this data crack attributed to Russia.