DONALD Trump and Kamala Harris’ phones have reportedly been “hacked”, launching an urgent probe into the potential breach.
Chinese hackers tapped into Verizon’s system and targeted the phones used by Republican presidential candidate and his Democrat rival, sources claim.
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Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was also targeted, according to media reports.
The New York Times said investigators were working to determine what communications, if any, were taken from the Republicans.
The Trump campaign was made aware this week that the ex-president and Vance were among a number of people whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems, it added.
The Republican campaign did not confirm that Trump’s and Vance’s phones were targeted.
Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, said Vice President Harris has emboldened China and Iran to attack US infrastructure to prevent Trump from returning to office.
The Trump campaign was hacked earlier this year.
The U.S. Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps with the hack and trying to disrupt the Nov. 5 election.
The hackers attempted to sow chaos in the presidential election by leaking documents to the press.
Politico first reported the hack after receiving emails from an anonymous account that included documents from Trump’s campaign.
The campaign claimed that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told Politico that the documents were “obtained illegally from foreign sources” and “intended to interfere” with the 2024 election.
“On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee,” Cheung added.
The documents leaked to Politico were deemed authentic by two sources familiar with the matter.
One of the documents reportedly included Trump’s running mate, JD Vance’s vetting file.
The 271-page file included information on Vance’s records, as well as public criticisms of Trump.
The file was identified as “Potential Vulnerabilities.”
The documents also included information on Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was on the shortlist for Trump’s running mates.
The hacker claimed they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.”
“I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them,” the hacker said, according to Politico.
“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said.
Iranian leader Qasem Soleimani was killed in 2020 during a US airstrike ordered by Trump’s administration.
Soleimani died at the Baghdad International Airport.
He led Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, a unit that was once deemed a foreign terrorist organization by the US.
HACKERS OF DAYS PAST
The hack comes after a similar incident in the 2016 presidential election.
Top officials in the Democratic Party were targeted and their emails leaked to the public ahead of the election.
The emails included private information on the inner workings of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Many of the emails were published by WikiLeaks and tainted Clinton’s White House bid.
National security officials later accused Russia of the hack.
Read more on the Irish Sun
The incident gained national attention and later led to the sensational 2017 investigation by the Justice Department.
Special counsel Robert Mueller was assigned to the case and found no evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian hackers.
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