Three Iranian operatives have been charged with hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as part of a broader effort to undermine the former president and erode confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The Justice Department has announced these charges, along with sanctions and rewards for information leading to the capture of the accused hackers. The operatives, who were employed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, had been targeting a wide range of individuals and organizations since 2020, including campaign officials, ambassadors, journalists, and former U.S. homeland security advisers.
In May, the hackers successfully breached the email accounts of Trump campaign officials and sought to use the stolen material to undermine Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. U.S. intelligence officials have stated that Iran opposes Trump’s reelection and sees him as more likely to escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran. The Trump campaign also claimed to have been briefed on Iranian assassination threats earlier this week, though Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied the hacking allegations, challenging the U.S. to provide evidence.
The U.S. government has been actively calling out election interference and foreign influence operations, a stark departure from the response in 2016 when Russian interference on behalf of Trump was not fully disclosed. In response to the recent hacking incidents, the Treasury Department has imposed sanctions related to the hacking, while the State Department is offering rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of the accused hackers who are currently in Iran. FBI Director Christopher Wray has condemned Iran’s aggressive behavior, including plots to murder journalists in New York City and ransomware attacks on hospitals.
Despite the focus on Iran, U.S. officials have reiterated that Russia remains the primary threat to elections. The Justice Department recently charged two employees of Russian-state media organization RT with covertly funding content creation favorable to Russia’s interests. Following the disclosure of the breach of the Trump campaign and the distribution of sensitive internal documents, Iran was also blamed for an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign. The hack-and-dump operation was aimed at sowing discord and potentially influencing the outcome of elections that Iran perceives as significant to its national security interests.
One of the tactics used by the accused hackers was impersonating U.S. officials and creating fake email personas to deceive their victims. Major news organizations were approached with leaked sensitive documents from the Trump campaign, but they declined to publish the information. Unsolicited emails containing hacked information were also sent to individuals associated with the Biden campaign, but none of the recipients replied. Both the Biden and Harris campaigns condemned the outreach by the Iranians as unwelcome and unacceptable. The emails sent by the hackers coincided with events such as presidential debates, with one email offering stolen information stating it could be useful to defeat Trump.
