Multiple Iranian nationals have reportedly been charged with criminal charges related to the regime's hacking of former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.
A federal grand jury approved the indictment on Thursday, and the Justice Department could announce the charges as early as Friday. According to Politico.
The charges relate to an Iranian cyber operation against the Trump campaign this summer, in which material stolen from the Republican candidate's team was reported to media outlets and now active in an apparent attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 election. was provided to President Biden's campaign, which has suspended the.
The Trump campaign acknowledged the hack last month and blamed the Iranian government after Politico reported that it had received documents about Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance from an AOL email account owned by an entity known as “Robert.”
The news organization did not provide details of what the document contained.
Officials from the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency later acknowledged that Iran was behind the hack and also attempted to compromise the Biden campaign's email accounts.
Microsoft and Google previously disclosed that Iran violated the campaign.
Earlier this month, U.S. security officials revealed that stolen Trump campaign materials were also given by Iranians to people associated with Biden's re-election campaign (many of which remained after the president left office, including Kamala Harris and others). (Race), who worked under the Vice President.
Officials said there was no indication that the recipient responded to the Iranian message.
Hackers working on behalf of foreign governments are typically based overseas, where they cannot be extradited to the United States, so they are less likely to go to trial.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department's national security division, said earlier this month that Iran is “making greater efforts to influence this year's elections than in previous election cycles, and “Iran's activities are becoming increasingly aggressive as the election approaches.” ”
“Iran recognizes that this year's elections will have particularly grave consequences in terms of impacting Iran's national security interests,” he said in a speech in New York City, according to the Associated Press. “There is an increasing tendency to try to shape outcomes.”
President Trump was briefed this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about “realistic and specific threats by Iran to assassinate President Trump with the goal of destabilizing and sowing chaos in the United States,” a campaign spokesperson said. Stephen Chan said in a statement on Wednesday. .
Zhang did not say what specifically ODNI revealed to Trump, but the former president later said that “there was already a move by Iran, but it didn't work.”
The newspaper has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.
