Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announced Saturday that it had been hacked, implying that Iranian operatives were engaged in the theft and distribution of key internal papers. The campaign did not disclose specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the assertion comes a day after Microsoft released a study exposing foreign agents’ attempts to influence in the US campaign in 2024.

provided an example 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.” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung attributed the hack to “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference “extremely seriously” and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine trust in US democratic institutions, but that it would defer to the Justice Department on this matter.

When queried about the Trump campaign’s claims, Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied any involvement. “We do not give credence to such reports,” the mission told the AP. “The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”

However, Iran has long been suspected of conducting hacking efforts against its adversaries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Tehran has long promised to retaliate against Trump over the 2020 drone strike that killed renowned Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump talks at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday.

The US Justice Department recently unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani national with ties to Iran who is accused of plotting assassination attempts against political figures in the United States, including potentially Trump, and seeking to hire alleged hitmen who were actually undercover law enforcement officials. Court filings in that case made it clear that Iran wanted to conduct operations against perceived regime rivals and avenge Soleimani’s death.

The hack was initially revealed by Politico on Saturday. The outlet said that it began getting emails from an anonymous account on July 22. The source — an AOL email account named simply as “Robert” — gave along what seemed to be a campaign research report on Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential contender. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump chose Vance as his

In that research, Microsoft claimed that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.” The report went on to say, “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have beeature of at least the last three US election cycles.” Iran’s operations have been remarkable and distinguish because they began later in the election season and used hacks

The report specifically stated that in June 2024, an Iranian military intelligence unit, Mint Sandstorm, sent a phishing email to an American presidential campaign using the stolen account of a former adviser. “The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain,” according to the summary.