US unveils charges against three Iranians over 2024 election meddling

The United States Justice Department has unsealed criminal charges against three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, accusing them of hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and attempting to interfere with the 5th November election.

The indictment is the latest move by the Biden administration to counteract foreign interference in the election between former President Trump, a Republican, and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Iran has dismissed these allegations, claiming that accusations of targeting former US officials are unfounded.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, during a news conference on Friday, identified the accused as Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi, stating that they sought to undermine Trump’s campaign. “We are witnessing increasingly aggressive Iranian cyber activity in this election cycle,” he noted.

The indictment alleges that the trio used deceptive email accounts to convince several campaign officials that they were communicating with trusted sources. This enabled the hackers to trick the officials into clicking on links that allowed them to steal emails and other internal documents, including debate preparation materials and profiles of potential vice-presidential candidates. This information was subsequently leaked to media outlets and shared with the campaign of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The charges include wire fraud, identity theft, and computer fraud. The U.S. Treasury Department has also imposed sanctions on the three men, alongside other members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump’s campaign reported in August that it had been hacked by Iran but claimed that no private information had been compromised. Despite this, several media outlets revealed they had declined to publish the internal campaign documents that had been offered to them.

Furthermore, Biden’s campaign did not respond when offered Trump’s debate preparation materials shortly before the two candidates engaged in their sole debate on 27th June, according to the indictment.

This cautious response is notably different from the 2016 election, during which hacked communications from Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign were widely covered.

The Iranian hacking team, known as APT42 or Charming Kitten, is reputed for deploying surveillance software on mobile devices to record calls, steal texts, and covertly activate cameras and microphones, researchers say.

The three men are currently in Iran and out of reach of US law enforcement, but Garland stated that the Justice Department has previously managed to apprehend international suspects long after charges were filed. “We will pursue these individuals for the rest of their lives,” he asserted.

The Justice Department has also pointed out that Iran’s actions are not limited to the digital sphere. Earlier this month, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges related to a plot to assassinate a US politician in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander. The defendant reportedly named Trump as a potential target, though there is no indication that he was linked to the two recent attempts on Trump’s life.

The Justice Department has also pursued legal action against Russian efforts to meddle in the election, bringing charges and sanctions against employees of the state media outlet RT for allegedly financing pro-Trump social media influencers in the US.