“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 in a statement to the outlet. “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’s statement comes after Microsoft
released
a nine-page
report
on Friday revealing that it had been “tracking” activity that “increasingly points to Iran’s intent to influence this year’s US presidential election.”
In a
blog
from Microsoft, the company discussed activities by several groups with connections to the “Iranian government.”
One of the groups was reported to have “sent 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,” according to Microsoft:
Yet another Iranian group, this one connected with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent 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 email contained a link that would direct traffic through a domain controled by the group before routing to the website of the provided link. Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. We’ve since notified those targeted.
“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 added.
In July, United States officials
revealed
that they had received information about a potential assassination plot on Trump by Iran.
The Department of Justice recently
revealed
that a Pakistani man, with alleged connections to Iran, was arrested and charged in connection to a potential plot to assassinate Trump and several other U.S. officials.