Trump and Harris to debate on ABC; Trump says he wants two more
STORY: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris have agreed to a debate. Set for September 10 on ABC, it will be the first face-to-face matchup between the rivals in what polls show is an extremely close race. On Thursday afternoon, Trump appeared publicly for the first since since Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate:
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some internal documents and communications had been hacked and blamed it on “foreign sources hostile to the United States” intent on interfering with the presidential election.
The acknowledgment by the campaign came after the POLITICO news organization reported that it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents that purported to be from inside the Trump campaign operation.
“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,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Cheung did not say why the campaign believed the hack came from hostile foreign operatives, or whether it had been briefed on any intrusions by U.S. intelligence or law enforcement agencies or private cybersecurity firms. But he cited a new report issued by Microsoft on Friday that said Iran is ramping up its digital election-meddling activity to try and influence the upcoming U.S. election, including by targeting one presidential campaign with a malicious email phishing attack.
Cheung suggested Iran was responsible for the hack, saying, “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. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”
Microsoft had no comment on which campaign had been targeted by Iran as part of its ongoing election-meddling effort. But it said an Iranian group connected with Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent what’s known as 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 Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which recently issued warnings about Iran’s efforts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election, did not return requests seeking comment Saturday.
Spear phishing is a common method of cyberattack that hackers use to steal sensitive information or install malware on the devices of specific victims. They are considered very effective and difficult to prevent. Russian cyber operatives used the technique in 2016 to obtain and leak internal emails from a top campaign official for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Microsoft also said the same Iranian hacking group that targeted one of the current presidential campaigns also unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. It did not specify which current presidential campaign or former presidential candidate was targeted. “We’ve since notified those targeted,” it said in a statement accompanying its new report.
Cheung said the effort reported by Microsoft to target an unspecified campaign official “coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a Vice Presidential nominee.” Trump announced his selection of Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio on July 15.
POLITICO, which first reported the campaign’s claim of a foreign intrusion, said it had not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation. USA TODAY also could not corroborate the POLITICO report. USA TODAY has not received or examined copies of any documents.
A POLITICO spokesperson did not immediately respond when reached by USA TODAY for comment.
According to POLITICO, it began receiving emails July 22 from an anonymous account.
“Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as ‘Robert’ — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official,” POLITICO said.
A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Vance, dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents, said POLITICO, which said two people familiar with the documents verified that they were authentic.
“One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file,” POLITICO said. The person emailing POLITICO also said they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions,” POLITICO reported.