Hackers breach Trump campaign website, threaten to release ‘evidence’ of crimes
- Site displayed bogus message spoofing a law enforcement announcement
- Hackers claimed to have confidential information on Trump and his relatives
The Trump campaign’s website was briefly hacked late Tuesday, with the culprits posting a typo-riddled message on the site threatening to release “evidence” of the president’s “criminal involvement” in a supposed scheme to sway next week’s election.
The hackers, whose identity was not immediately known, only managed to crack into the Trump website’s “about” page. The rest of the website remained intact.
Within minutes of the breach being discovered, the Trump campaign took down the site, but not before some news organisations were able to screen-grab the ominous message.
“This site was seized,” the message claimed in bold text place underneath the insignias of the FBI and the Justice Department. “Multiple devices were compromised that gave full access to trump and relatives … we have evidence that completely discredits mr trump as a president. proving his criminal involvement and coorperation (sic) with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections.”
The missive also claimed the hackers had obtained “classified information … proving that the trump-gov is involved in the origin of the corona virus”.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh confirmed that the website was “defaced”, but said personal information on donors or supporters had not been tapped.