Charges of terrorism filed against purported members of Iranian hacker group involved in Trump campaign

The U.S. Justice Department has indicted three men for hacking the Trump campaign on behalf of the Iranian government in an attempt to harm former President Donald Trump’s election chances. Despite Trump’s name not being mentioned in the 37-page indictment, it is clear that the charges relate to stealing information from his campaign and leaking it to journalists and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign before Biden withdrew from the race in July. The FBI had previously reported that Iranian hackers had sent unsolicited stolen information from the Trump campaign to people associated with Biden’s campaign, but there was no evidence of a response. The indicted men, Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi, work for the Iranian government’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and are currently residing in Tehran. They face conspiracy charges related to hacking into a protected computer, supporting terrorism, wire fraud, and identity theft. The U.S. government has not apprehended the men yet, but U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that pursuing them will be a priority for U.S. officials moving forward. Garland emphasized that the Justice Department will continue to track and prosecute the defendants for the rest of their lives.

Photo credit
www.usatoday.com