Iranian agents are charged in the US with hacking attacks on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department on Friday lifted criminal charges against three Iranian agents suspected of hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and disseminating stolen information to media organizations.

The three accused hackers were employed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and their operation also targeted a wide range of targets, including government officials, media members and non-governmental organizations, the Justice Department said.

The Trump campaign announced on August 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. Several major news organizations, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, which said they had leaked confidential information from the Trump campaign, declined to publish.

U.S. intelligence officials then linked Iran to a hacking attack on the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They said the hack-and-dump operation was intended to sow discord, exploit divisions within American society and potentially influence the outcome of elections, which Iran described as “particularly consequential in terms of the impact it would have on.” could have its national security interests.” “

Last week, officials also revealed that the Iranians sent unsolicited emails containing excerpts of the hacked information to people associated with the Biden campaign in late June and early July. None of the recipients responded. The Harris campaign said the emails resembled spam or a phishing attempt and condemned the outreach to the Iranians as “unwanted and unacceptable malicious activity.”

The charges come at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel escalate their attacks against each other, raising concerns about the prospect of all-out war, and as U.S. officials say they continue to pose physical threats are pursuing Iran against a number of officials, including Trump.