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The Justice Department charged three Iranian men on Friday for allegedly hacking President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The indictment names Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi, with multiple charges.
All three men were reportedly employed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and used a wide range of techniques to access current and former government officials’ digital information.
“These authoritarian regimes, which violate the human rights of their own citizens, do not get a say in our country’s democratic process,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The American people, and the American people alone, will decide the outcome” of this year’s elections.
The Washington Post revealed that Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles was among the hacking targets.
The phishing attacks began in June, according to another report. The Iranians allegedly also targeted Roger Stone and used his email to target Trump campaign staff.
“Such activity is part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information” the indictment stated.
“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to Newsmax.
As RSBN previously reported, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and other agencies announced earlier this month that Iranian hackers shared private Trump campaign information with President Joe Biden’s campaign in June and July. The agencies shared the details in a statement from the FBI National Press Office concerning the election integrity issue.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” the statement read.
“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied. Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations,” it continued.