Lord Mandelson was targeted by a person impersonating President Trump’s aide a year before Andy Burnham’s hoax call.
Lord Mandelson, who was then ambassador to the US, was contacted by someone pretending to be Susie Wiles, Mr Trump’s chief of staff.
Mr Burnham was targeted around the time that he became Prime Minister, with sources claiming that David Lammy had passed on the fake contact to Mr Burnham.
Mr Mandelson’s impersonation hoax took place over WhatsApp, where the ambassador asked for a convenient time to meet.
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Officials in the embassy tried to set up a meeting with Ms Wiles’ office, only for them to explain the messages were fake and that her phone had been hacked; it is understood.
He is not thought to have responded to the messages from the hoax contact, unlike Mr Burnham, who said he exchanged messages “of no significance”.
It is not clear whether the two hoax events are connected or the motivations behind either.
Security services are said to be investigating Mr Burnham’s hoax contact.
Lord Mandelson was contacted in a period when a series of business leaders and politicians were contacted by the impersonator of Ms Wiles.
The FBI have been investigating the impersonator, and have said that whilst they have not made any arrests, a foreign country did not appear to be involved.
Ms Wiles is understood to have changed her number for security reasons this year.
A White House official said: “White House staff are routinely trained on best practices to protect the integrity of their devices, and the entire administration has robust security protocols.”
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They also confirmed that the incident with Mr Burnham had “nothing to do with the chief of staff’s devices being hacked”.
Mr Lammy is understood to have handed Mr Burnham the wrong number after being approached by someone claiming to be Ms Wiles, who asked the former deputy prime minister to pass on the number.
Soon after the PM made contact with the contact, he flagged it to official government channels.
The White House was then contacted, at which point it became clear the contact had not been initiated by Ms Wiles and was someone else.
“Susie is a pro,” a figure close to the Trump administration told The Times. “She would not be messaging heads of states. That’s for the president.”
Mr Burnham said last week: “There was a minimal exchange, nothing of consequence and quickly I realised that this needed to be reported and I did so.
“So I handled it in the right way.
“All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right.”
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