US charges several Iranians with hack of Trump campaign

Prosecutors on Friday unsealed charges against Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi.

They each face 18 counts, including aggravated identity theft, material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, wire fraud, and conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computer.

The men “prepared for and engaged in a wide-ranging hacking campaign” that targeted current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, political campaigns and others, prosecutors added.

The scheme began around January 2020 and continued through at least this month, according to the charging papers.

“Such activity is part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials that could be used to advance the malign activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the indictment reads.

The plot is also part of ongoing efforts to avenge the death of General Qassem Soleimani, according to the indictment. Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020 on orders approved by then-President Trump.

Trump’s campaign was hacked earlier this summer, but the issue was not made public until August, after reporters contacted the former president’s team who announced they were approached by a man claiming to be named Robert who said he had internal campaign documents.

The indictment notes the men used fake online personas to “trick” several victims.

The FBI previously indicated Iran made similar attempts to hack the Democratic campaign of President Joe Biden, before he dropped out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris was also targeted, but the effort was unsuccessful.

The agency added Iran attempted to share stolen information from the Trump campaign with Biden’s campaign — and continues to send material to media outlets — but there is no evidence the president’s campaign engaged with them. Harris’s campaign previously condemned the effort and said similar emails were ignored.

Prosecutors say hackers also targeted current or former officials at agencies including the Department of Defense, State Department and the CIA, in addition to current or former members of Congress, White House staffers and several journalists.

In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray called the hacking effort “brazen behavior” by Iran to interfere in the presidential election. Iran previously denied involvement in the hacking campaign.

“Today the FBI would like to send a message to the Government of Iran: You and your hackers can’t hide behind your keyboards,” Wray stated.

“If you try to meddle in our elections, we’re going to hold you accountable. If you try to attack our infrastructure or commit violence against our citizens, we’re going to disrupt you. And as long as you keep attempting to flout the rule of law, you’re going to keep running into the FBI,” he added.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has refuted as ‘baseless’ the claims that Tehran has been interfering in US presidential elections.