The U.S. Department of Justice unveiled criminal charges on Friday against three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, accusing them of hacking into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in an attempt to interfere with the upcoming November 5 election.
This indictment represents the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to counter foreign attempts to disrupt the election between Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump, and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Iran dismissed the allegations on Thursday, calling claims of targeting former U.S. officials baseless.
Attorney General Merrick Garland identified the three individuals – Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi – who, according to the indictment, sought to undermine Trump’s campaign. “Iranian cyber activities have become increasingly aggressive during this election season,” Garland stated in a press briefing.
The indictment claims the hackers used fake email addresses to deceive campaign officials into clicking on malicious links, giving them access to internal emails and documents such as debate prep materials and potential vice-presidential candidate profiles. The information was then reportedly leaked to media outlets and Joe Biden’s campaign while he was still a candidate.
The charges against the hackers include wire fraud, identity theft, and computer fraud. Additionally, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against these individuals and several other Revolutionary Guards Corps members.
Trump’s campaign had previously acknowledged the hack by Iran in August but claimed no private data was compromised. Several media outlets confirmed they declined to publish the leaked campaign documents offered to them.
Unlike the 2016 election where hacked information from Hillary Clinton’s campaign garnered significant attention, Biden’s campaign did not respond to attempts to share Trump’s debate prep materials before their June 27 debate, according to the indictment.
The hackers, known as APT42 or Charming Kitten, are also believed to use surveillance software on mobile devices to monitor calls, steal text messages, and access cameras and microphones, according to researchers.
The indicted individuals remain in Iran, outside the reach of U.S. authorities. However, Garland emphasized that the Justice Department will pursue them indefinitely. “We will track these individuals for the rest of their lives,” he remarked.
The Department of Justice also noted that Iran’s interference goes beyond digital efforts. Earlier this month, a Pakistani national, with alleged ties to Iran, pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges connected to a plot to assassinate a U.S. politician as retaliation for the 2020 killing of Iran’s top military commander. Although Trump was reportedly named as a potential target, the case appears unrelated to two recent assassination attempts on Trump.
The Justice Department continues its focus on Russian efforts to influence the election as well, with charges and sanctions against employees of the Russian state media outlet RT for allegedly financing pro-Trump influencers on social media in the U.S.
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