U.S. Charges Iranians With Hacking Trump Campaign

A federal grand jury in Washington has indicted three members of a cyberespionage unit associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps for mounting a wide-ranging attack targeting politicians, officials and journalists that led to the hacking of the Trump campaign.The Iranians unleashed a barrage of malicious emails to a wide array of targets in recent years, but in 2024 began focusing on undermining former President Donald J.Trump, whom they regard as their most implacable enemy, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.The attacks were “part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S.

electoral process and unlawfully acquire information related to former and current U.S.officials,” prosecutors wroteThe indictment, while expected, highlighted the heightened threat posed by hostile international actors — Iran, Russia and China chief among them — using cyberattacks in hopes of disrupting the U.S.

election and intimidating domestic dissidents abroad.The hackers — Masoud Jalili, Seeyed Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi — are all living in Iran and will be tried in absentia.They have been charged with wire fraud and a variety of cybercrimes.Iran’s mission to the United Nations has repeatedly denied the accusations.

“The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election,” it said in a statement last month when U.S.intelligence officials publicly accused Iran of hacking the Trump campaign.Iran was able to infiltrate the accounts this year after gaining access to the email accounts of a longtime political adviser, Roger J.

Stone, in a type of breach that allows a hacker to infiltrate a circle of people by impersonating someone they communicate regularly with.The material stolen from the campaign was sent to journalists at The New York Times and other outlets but was not widely published.Iran’s hostility to Mr.Trump also includes an appare...