The U.S. Justice Department on Friday charged three Iranian operatives with hacking former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in what the agency said was an attempt to interfere with the election in November.
The three men, all Iranian nationals residing in Iran, were charged with material support for terrorism, computer fraud, wire fraud, and identity theft for their roles in cyberattacks, according to the indictment.
The defendants allegedly targeted the email accounts of current and former U.S. public officials, journalists, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns. According to the indictment, the men used fake email accounts to trick campaign officials to click on links that allowed the hackers to steal internal information.
“The defendants’ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference. “We know that Iran is continuing its brazen efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and advance its malign activities through the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
Trump’s campaign revealed in August that it had been hacked by Iran. At the time, the campaign said hackers weren’t able to get any private information. However, several news outlets reportedly received documents that were allegedly stolen from the campaign.
Friday’s indictment was paired with sanctions by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, while the State Department offered hefty rewards for information leading to the arrests of the defendants.
Iran has denied past allegations of election interference.
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