WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) -

Donald Trump's U.S. presidential campaign said on Saturday

some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the

Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and

Iran without providing direct evidence.

The Republican's campaign statement came shortly after news

website Politico reported it had begun receiving emails in July

from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from

inside Trump's operation, including a report about running mate

JD Vance's "potential vulnerabilities."

"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," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a

statement.

Late on Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social app that

Microsoft ( MSFT ) had just informed the campaign that Iran had

hacked one of its websites. He cast blame on Iran, adding they

were "only able to get publicly available information." He did

not elaborate further on the hack.

Reuters has not independently verified the identity of the

alleged hackers or their motivation.

The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from

Microsoft ( MSFT ) researchers that said Iranian government-tied hackers

tried breaking into the account of a "high-ranking official" on

a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The hackers had taken over

an account belonging to a former political advisor and then used

it to target the official, the report said. That report did not

provide further details on the targets' identities.

A Microsoft ( MSFT ) spokesperson declined to name the targeted

officials or provide additional details after the report was

published.

Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York

said in an email that "the Iranian government neither possesses

nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United

States presidential election."

"We do not accord any credence to such reports," it added

in response to the Trump campaign's allegations.

On Friday, in response to Microsoft's ( MSFT ) findings, Iran's U.N.

mission told Reuters its cyber capabilities were "defensive and

proportionate to the threats it faces," and that it had no plans

to launch cyberattacks.

The former president had tense relations with Iran while in

office. Under Trump, the United States killed Iranian military

commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and withdrew from a

multilateral Iran nuclear deal.

"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 said.

Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. While there

have been no suggestions that the suspect was linked to Iran,

CNN reported last month that the U.S. had intelligence about an

Iranian plot against Trump. Iran has denied such charges.

Late last month, a senior intelligence official told

reporters in a briefing that Tehran and Moscow maintain their

same presidential preferences as in past cycles, where Iranian

operatives will attempt to tear down the Republican ticket while

Russia has made efforts to smear Democrats, according to prior

intelligence community assessments.