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 latest action, coupled with sanctions and rewards for information leading to the capture of the hackers, is the US government’s latest attempt to denounce Iran’s alleged attempts to interfere in the election by damaging Trump and sowing general chaos . This comes as Iran is also accused of threatening the lives of Trump and former officials, and US-Iran relations remain particularly strained as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The defendants’ own words made it clear that they sought to undermine former President Trump’s campaign leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “We know that Iran continues its brazen efforts to sow discord, undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process and advance its malign activities,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference announcing the charges.

The three accused hackers were employed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Since 2020, their operation has aimed to compromise the email accounts of a variety of targets, including a former ambassador to Israel, a former deputy CIA director, State and Defense Department officials, a former US homeland security adviser and journalists Accusation.

The Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions related to the hacking attack and the State Department offered rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of defendants who are not in custody.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations dismissed the allegations as “unfounded and without any basis” and said Iran had neither the motive nor the intention to interfere in the election. It called on the US to provide evidence and said if the US did so, “we will respond accordingly.”

The hacking attack came to light after Trump’s campaign disclosed on August 10 that an attack had occurred and that 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.”

The indictment makes clear that the accused hackers posed as U.S. officials and created fake email personas to deceive their victims.

Politico has reported that it has been receiving emails from an anonymous account since July 22. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — appeared to share a research dossier the campaign appeared to have prepared on the Republican vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump chose Vance as his running mate.

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.”

“Today, the FBI wants to send a message to the Iranian government: You and your hackers cannot hide behind your keyboards,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a video statement. “If you attempt to interfere in our elections, we will hold you accountable.”