Three men connected to Iran have been indicted in relation to a hacking plot against former President Donald Trump’s campaign, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi are the three suspects named in the case, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
The indictment shows the trio are facing a long list of charges, including: Conspiracy to Obtain Information from a Protected Computer; Defraud and Obtain a Thing of Value; Commit Fraud Involving Authentication Features; Commit Aggravated Identity Theft; Commit Access Device Fraud; and Commit Wire Fraud While Falsely Registering Domains.
Three hackers with ties to Iran were indicted by the DOJ. (Background: Reuters)
The three hackers, who are accused of working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were allegedly “engaged in a wide-ranging hacking campaign that used spearphishing and social engineering techniques to target and compromise the accounts of current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns.”
Last week, the U.S. revealed the Iranian hackers had obtained information on the Trump campaign and tried to distribute it to people linked to the Biden campaign and media organizations since June.
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The federal government acknowledges that the Trump campaign has been a specific and repeated target of Iran since he ordered the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC Qods Force.
Trump was briefed Tuesday about “real and specific threats” from Iran to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate, according to his campaign.
Iran’s aim to assassinate Trump is part of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to “destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a press release.
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Young veiled Iranian schoolgirls perform while an image of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shown during a ceremony commemorating assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran. Ismail Haniyeh was killed in his residency in northern Tehran the day after the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Cheung said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
David Spunt currently serves as a Washington D.C. based correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in December 2018.
