Multiple Iranian nationals have reportedly been indicted on criminal charges related to the regime’s hacking of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
A federal grand jury signed off on the indictment Thursday and the Justice Department could announce the charges as early as Friday, according to Politico.
The charges pertain to an Iranian cyber operation against the Trump campaign this summer, in which material stolen from the Republican nominee’s team was offered to media outlets and President Biden’s now-defunct campaign in an apparent attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
The Trump campaign confirmed the hacking last month – blaming Tehran – after Politico reported that it had received a dossier on GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance from an AOL email account belonging to an entity going by “Robert.”
The outlet did not reveal details about what was contained in the dossier.
Officials from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency later confirmed that Iran was behind a hack and attempted to breach Biden campaign email accounts as well.
Microsoft and Google previously revealed Iran breached a campaign.
Earlier this month, US security agencies revealed that the stolen Trump campaign material was also passed along by the Iranians to people involved in Biden’s re-election campaign (many of whom stayed on, working for Vice President Kamala Harris, after the president dropped out of the race).
The agencies said there was no indication that the recipients responded to the Iranian messages.
Hackers acting on behalf of foreign governments are usually based overseas, in countries that will not extradite them to the US, which makes it unlikely that they will ever stand trial.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who heads the DOJ’s National Security Division, said earlier this month that Iran “is making a greater effort to influence this year’s election than it has in prior election cycles and that Iranian activity is growing increasingly aggressive as this election nears.”
“Iran perceives this year’s elections to be particularly consequential in impacting Iran’s national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome,” he said in a speech in New York City, according to the Associated Press.
Trump was briefed this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” his campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement on Wednesday.
Cheung did not say what ODNI specifically revealed to Trump, but the former president has since stated that “moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out.”
The Post has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
