The U.S. Department of Justice has charged three Iranian nationals as part of an effort to hack emails and computers used by President Donald Trump’s campaign staff and other political communications.
The Washington Post reported that DOJ officials are charging Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The indictment accuses the three men of “planning and engaging in a massive hacking campaign” against current and former US officials, political campaigns and the media.
According to the indictment Jalili, Aghamiri and Balaghi “the work is part of the ongoing efforts of Iran […] destroy confidence in the US electoral process.” They also face possible charges such as providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, fraud and identity theft and more serious charges.
The suspects are accused of conducting a hacking operation carried out in Iran over a period of four years. Their victims include current and former officials of the US State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Embassy in Israel and an Iranian human rights group.
Then last May, three hackers successfully gained access to the accounts of Trump campaign officials. (Efforts to breach the Biden campaign staff were, apparently, unsuccessful.) President Joe Biden’s campaign staff and news outlets such as The Washington Post again Politics received unsolicited emails from “Robert’s” AOL account containing material stolen from the Trump campaign. They included internal polling results and a poll of Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance.
Due to extradition laws, it is unlikely that these criminals will face justice on US soil.
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