The Justice Department on Friday dropped criminal charges against three Iranian operatives suspected of hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and leaking stolen information to media outlets.

The Justice Department said the three accused hackers were employed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and their operations targeted a wide range of targets, including government officials, members of the media and non-governmental organizations.

The Trump campaign disclosed on August 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. Several major news organizations that said they received classified information from inside the Trump campaign, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, declined to publish it.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the United States is taking a whole-of-government approach to ensure the November election is free of foreign interference.

“The intelligence community and specifically the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are providing updates,” Garland said.

These updates are released at short intervals as the election approaches.

“We are working around the clock to ensure that we receive immediate information about such an effort and that we are able to inform the American public in as close to real time as possible,” he said. are.” “We will continue to work with all agencies and the government to detect, disrupt and stop this type of activity.”

US intelligence officials have linked Iran to the hacking of the Trump campaign and the attempted breach of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign. He said the hack-and-dump operation was aimed at dividing American society, exploiting divisions and potentially influencing the outcome of an election that Iran “considers particularly consequential in terms of the effects it may have.” may affect national security interests.”

Last week, officials also disclosed that the Iranians sent unsolicited emails containing excerpts of hacked information to people associated with the Biden campaign in late June and early July. None of the recipients responded. The Harris campaign said the emails resembled spam or a phishing attempt and condemned the outreach to Iranians as “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.”

The indictment comes at a time when tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel escalate attacks against each other, raising the possibility of an all-out war. Concerns are growing, and as U.S. officials say they continue to monitor physical threats. Iran against several officials including Trump.