Emails of centrist French presidential candidate's team hacked, altered

PARIS

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s team said it has been the victim of a “massive” cyber attack and that its documents have been distributed via social networks.

Macron’s team said in a statement that hackers have mixed fake documents with real ones stolen from the personal and professional email accounts of campaign staff. The campaign said the activities shown by its documents are completely legal.

Centrist independent Macron was leading his nationalist rival Marine Le Pen by a wide margin when campaigning officially ended at midnight on Friday.

Le Pen’s top aide Florian Philippot responded to the leak on Twitter, suggesting the media have avoided scrutinizing Macron thoroughly.

“Will the Macronleaks uncover things that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?” Philippot said in a tweet. “Frightening democratic shipwreck.”

France's election campaign commission is examining the hacking attack, which targeted Macron's political movement.

The commission said it would have a meeting early Saturday to discuss the attack.

It urged French media not to publish the documents, warning that some of them are "probably" fake.

French electoral law imposes a blackout Saturday and most of Sunday on any campaigning and media coverage seen as swaying the election, to allow voters a period of reflection before casting their ballots.

Macron is seen as the favorite going into Sunday's runoff against far-right Le Pen.