Trump's campaign says it was hacked.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign said: "These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States, with the aim of interfering in the 2024 election." Politico said it has verified the authenticity of the documents.

The campaign's statement came a day after Microsoft released a report showing that hackers originating from Iranian territory had targeted the campaign of an unnamed US presidential candidate in June.

According to Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), the campaign received a sophisticated phishing email designed to appear credible in order to trick targets into clicking on a malicious link.

A spokesman for Trump's campaign, Steven Cheung, said the hacking attempt in June, as outlined in the MTAC report, "coincided with the time Donald Trump was selecting his vice presidential candidate."

Politico reported that in late July, they began receiving emails from someone who identified himself as "Robert" using an AOL email account. According to Politico, the document about Vance was 271 pages long and based on publicly available information about Vance's profile and statements.

This email account also sent a portion of research material on Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is also a vice presidential candidate.

Cao Phong (according to Politico, CNN, BBC)