The United States on Friday unveiled charges against three Iranian men as it accused Iran of election meddling, saying malicious actors hacked former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the three defendants conspired with others to carry out “a year-long, wide-ranging hacking operation on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”.

In recent days, the operation has targeted people associated with American political campaigns.

“The defendants’ own words make it clear that they were trying to undermine former President Trump’s campaign ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” Garland said.

According to court documents, cyber actors used spear phishing (targeted fake emails) and social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts of US government officials and individuals.

“The message from the U.S. government is clear: The American people, not foreign powers, decide the outcome of our nation’s elections,” Garland added.

– ‘serious’ threat –

“There are few actors in this world that pose as serious a threat to America’s national security as Iran,” he noted.

According to the indictment, cyber actors began operating in early 2020 and began targeting and gaining unauthorized access to the personal accounts of people associated with the US presidential campaign around May 2024.

They then tried to leak the stolen material to members of the media and people believed to be associated with the second presidential campaign.

Although the other campaign is not named in the indictment, Garland said Friday that there was no information suggesting that recipients of President Joe Biden’s campaign responded.

That was before Biden dropped out of the White House race. Elections are being held in the United States on November 5.

All three hackers – Masoud Jalili, Seyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasser Balaghi – are based in Iran.

The State Department is offering up to $10 million for information on Jalili and two of his IRGC associates.

In addition to the allegations related to the campaign, the indictment also alleges that the hackers attempted to steal information that could be used to aid efforts to avenge the death of Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani, who was ordered by Trump when he was president.

In a separate statement Friday, the Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on seven people, including Jalili, for trying to interfere in the U.S. election.

Bradley Smith, acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the Treasury is “committed to holding accountable those who harm our institutions.”

In addition to Jalili, Treasury also targeted six staffers and executives at Iranian cybersecurity firm Enet Pasargad, which it said tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

“Between approximately August and November 2020, Emennet Pasargad led an online operation to intimidate and influence American voters, and undermine voter confidence and sow dissent,” the Treasury said.

US officials had previously said that Iranian cyber attackers provided material stolen from Trump’s campaign to staff for his then-rival, Biden.

In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails — blamed on the Russians — exposed internal party communications, including those about candidate Hillary Clinton.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign said in August that it too had been targeted by foreign hackers.

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