Iranians indicted in connection with Trump campaign hack

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Politico:

Iranians indicted in connection with Trump campaign hack

The indictment could be unveiled as soon as Friday.

Stolen materials from the Trump campaign were later sent to journalists and the Joe Biden campaign before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee. | Pool photo by Shannon Stapleton


By Betsy Woodruff Swan and Josh Gerstein

Updated: 09/26/2024 07:15 PM EDT




A grand jury has indicted multiple Iranians on charges related to hacking Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

The federal charges stem from an Iranian operation that allegedly stole internal Trump campaign communications this summer, according to three people familiar with the investigation who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

Stolen materials from the Trump campaign were later sent to journalists and individuals associated with President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.

The names of the defendants and the specific criminal charges were not immediately available. A grand jury secretly approved the indictment on Thursday afternoon. The Justice Department is expected to announce the charges as soon as Friday.

The Justice Department and the Trump campaign declined to comment.

Last month, the Trump campaign confirmed that it had been hacked after POLITICO and other news organizations received internal campaign documents from an anonymous email account, including a research dossier on Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. The campaign blamed Tehran for the breach. A Microsoft report on Aug. 8 said Iranian hackers had “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”

This month, U.S. security agencies released an unusual statement saying Iranians sent material stolen from the former president’s campaign to people linked to Biden’s reelection team (which later morphed into Harris’ campaign). The statement said there is no sign the recipients responded.

Google’s cybersecurity arm has said Iranians tried to hack into Biden’s campaign as well, but there are no indications those attempts succeeded.

“Russia, Iran, and China are trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in U.S. society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability,” the statement from U.S. security agencies said.

The indictment is the latest in a string of federal indictments against foreign hackers alleged to target American businesses, government agencies and individuals. In many of these cases, the defendants live in countries hostile to the United States and are unlikely to ever be arrested. And the DOJ’s public release of these allegations likely lowers the chance that they will travel to a country with an extradition treaty with the United States. But federal officials have long held that naming and shaming hackers could deter future hacking attempts.

The Trump campaign also said this week that U.S. intelligence officials told him Iran has been plotting to assassinate him. In July, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with plotting on behalf of Iran to kill high-ranking U.S. politicians or officials. The charging document did not name the defendant’s alleged targets, but it has been widely reported that he wanted to kill Trump.

U.S. security officials believe Iran has sought for years to assassinate Trump or his former Iran advisers, seeking revenge for the 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. In January of 2020, Trump ordered an airstrike that took out Soleimani, then the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. That unit was responsible for extraterritorial military operations and the U.S. State Department has designated it as a terrorist organization.

Several former Trump administration officials still have security because of the continued threats from Iran.

Foreign efforts to influence American politics have persisted for several election cycles. In 2016, the Russian government infamously stole and distributed Clinton campaign emails, embarrassing the Democratic presidential nominee. The Kremlin also ran a social media influence campaign aiming to sow discord and boost Trump, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment. In the years after the campaign, the Justice Department indicted numerous Russians for the scheme, and intelligence officials accused China and Iran of launching other nefarious influence campaigns.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department charged two Russian state media employees with funneling money to American far-right social media influencers as part of a plot to promote pro-Trump and anti-Ukraine messaging.