The U.S. Justice Department has charged three Iranian men, Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi, for their alleged involvement in a hacking campaign targeting Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The indictment alleges that the men, who are members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), executed 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.

The hacking campaign began as early as January 2020, following the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The hackers allegedly turned their sights to Trump's political campaign in May 2024. Investigators said they gained access to people associated with the campaign via spearphishing emails and stole private documents and emails, which they then tried to leak to the media and "individuals that the Conspirators believed were associated with" another presidential campaign.

According to The Washington Post, the indictment does not name the other presidential campaign, but its description matches that of President Biden before he dropped out of the race. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that both campaigns cooperated with the investigation, and there is no indication anyone from the Biden campaign replied to the hackers' messages.

The charges mark an escalation in the federal government's work to combat Iran's alleged efforts to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. The State Department quickly offered a $10 million reward for information about the three defendants, and the Treasury Department unveiled new sanctions targeting seven people tied to the Iranian hacking effort.

Ross Kaminsky