Trump campaign says 'foreign sources' stole documents to interfere with the election

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Days after the story broke, only a few things are clear about an apparent hack of former President Trump's campaign.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Politico first reported on Saturday that it's been receiving Trump campaign documents from an anonymous source. Other news organizations have since said they've received material, too. It is less certain who's behind this hack, although an internet security team from Microsoft has said Iranian hackers targeted an unnamed presidential candidate.

FADEL: NPR's Shannon Bond joins us to unpack what we know about the allegation. Good morning, Shannon.

SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.

FADEL: So what is the Trump campaign saying about this hack?

BOND: Well, it says these documents, which include a dossier on vice presidential candidate JD Vance, are real and were the result of a breach. And the campaign pointed to this report that Microsoft put out last week that detailed efforts by Iran to target an unnamed presidential campaign.

But the Trump campaign hasn't provided any evidence that these leaked documents are actually connected to that hacking attempt, and Microsoft isn't giving any more detail either. Now, generally, companies like Microsoft will not comment on these kind of cases unless the victim - in this case, the Trump campaign - gives permission. But, of course, this is a serious claim, and so on Monday, the FBI said it's investigating it.

FADEL: And what do we know about this hacking attempt that Microsoft described?

BOND: Well, it says it came from a group run by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. They compromised the email of a former adviser to this unnamed presidential campaign. They then used that to target a current campaign official. But the Microsoft report did not say whether this had been successful.

The Washington Post has since reported that the former adviser in question here is Roger Stone, the longtime Trump confidant. And the Post also reported that the FBI has actually been investigating efforts by Iran to hack both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns since June. I should add here that NPR has not independently verified the Post's reporting.

FADEL: And what does the Harris campaign say about this?

BOND: Well, it says the FBI, you know, notified it back in July that it had been targeted by a foreign actor, but that the campaign is not aware of any breaches. And I think what we do know is it appears Iran is, indeed, targeting presidential campaigns. It's done that in past election cycles. What we don't know is, first of all, whether any of this this year has succeeded. And specifically, we don't know whether these leaked Trump campaign documents are tied to Iran.

I spoke with Chris Krebs. He ran the federal cybersecurity agency, CISA, during the 2020 election, and he's now at the security firm SentinelOne. He says this whole situation is kind of like an iceberg.

CHRIS KREBS: You see the part that's out of the water. But below the waterline, there's a whole bunch of other stuff that we're just not seeing, we're not privy to.

FADEL: Shannon, in what ways does this incident echo the 2016 election, when Russia hacked and leaked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign?

BOND: Yeah. I mean, there are definitely parallels here, but I think there's also some important differences. You know, the news outlets that got leaked these campaign documents from the Trump campaign - they've been much more cautious in how they're reporting on them than how we saw those Clinton emails being handled eight years ago.

And overall, you know, it's unclear at this point what impact this kind of hacking will have this year. But it's an increasingly common threat not just from Iran, but from Russia, even adversaries like China. I'd also say, Leila, it's worth remembering that back in 2016, the Trump campaign welcomed and even encouraged Russia to hack the Clinton campaign. But now that they have themselves become the targets of hacking, we hear them changing their tune.

FADEL: NPR's Shannon Bond. Thanks, Shannon.

BOND: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.