Politico: Donald Trump’s campaign got ‘hacked’, allegedly by ‘Iranians’

Remember in 2016, when Donald Trump and his campaign were in open collusion with the people hacking into Hillary Clinton’s communications and records? Remember the media gleefully publishing every little hacked email? Remember “but her emails.” Well, funny story? Donald Trump’s campaign got hacked. Politico got the exclusive because the hackers sent them some of the information and communications from the Trump campaign. The hackers are apparently foreign actors, likely Iranian. The “hackers” have already shared some information with Politico.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked. The acknowledgment came after POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation.

The campaign blamed “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.” Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday. POLITICO has not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation, and a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, declined to say if they had further information substantiating the campaigns’ suggestion that it was targeted by Iran.

“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,” Cheung said. “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.”

On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails 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. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them and granted anonymity to describe internal communications. One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file.

The research dossier was a 271-page document based on publicly available information about Vance’s past record and statements, with some — such as his past criticisms of Trump — identified in the document as “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.” The person also sent part of a research document about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who was also a finalist for the vice presidential nomination. The person said they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.”

Asked how they obtained the documents, the person responded: “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 scope of the information obtained by the hacker is unclear. But it represents a major security breach for Trump’s campaign.

[From Politico]

Anyway, I hope Politico publishes everything. I doubt they will, especially given the fact that Politico was bought by some kind of hard-right-wing Trump supporter (funny that). But media outlets need to bring the exact same energy to the Trump hacks as they did the DNC/Clinton campaign hacks. Publish everything and call it newsworthy. Here’s what I question though – obviously, the Vance files are suspect, because I have believed all along that they barely vetted that man or his family. There’s already a conspiracy going around that this is all some kind of move to push JD Vance off the ticket? Christopher Bouzy – who has been right about a lot of stuff during this election cycle – has some thoughts. A lot of people are side-eyeing the hell out of all of this. Maybe this is the latest staged bullsh-t from the Trumpers.

One of the three things will happen because of this “hack.”

1. Trump will sack Vance.

2. Trump will drop out because he doesn’t want to lose to a Black woman.

3. Something damaging is about to drop, and the “hack” will be used to cast doubt.

Hackers don’t use AOL accounts.

— Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) (@cbouzy) August 11, 2024

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails.”

Eight years ago, Trump asked Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Now Trump claims his campaign has been hacked by Iranians. Could be karma. Could be another Trump lie.pic.twitter.com/iaSzEqR1X7

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 10, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.