The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday (September 27) issued criminal charges against three Iran-linked operatives for targeting the campaign of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The three men are suspected to be related to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards. Masoud Jalili, Yasir Balaghi and Syed Ali Aghamiri were charged with conspiracy to obtain information from a secure computer, fraud and multiple counts of identity theft, among other counts.

The charges also include conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and eight counts of wire fraud.

According to the indictment unsealed Friday, the three men sought to influence the U.S. presidential election after receiving information from Trump.

On August 10, the Trump campaign claimed it had been hacked and blamed Iranian actors. Several news outlets, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, also said they were provided with classified information from within the Trump campaign but refused to publish it.

Last week, US intelligence officials revealed that operatives tried to reach US President Joe Biden’s campaign in late June and early July and sent unsolicited emails containing excerpts of the hacked information.

“In late June and early July, Iranian malicious cyber actors sent unsolicited emails to individuals associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt of emails purported to be stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign. I was there as a text. No information at this time,” FBI officials said, referring to those recipients.

But the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate and vice president Kamala Harris later said it considered the Iranian action spam or a phishing attempt.

Iran has strongly denied allegations of meddling in the US election. Iran’s mission to the United Nations was quoted by CBS News as saying that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is not involved in U.S. internal turmoil or election disputes,” adding that “Iran has no intention of interfering in U.S. elections.” is neither the purpose nor the intention; and, therefore, it expressly denies such allegations.”

(with input from agencies)