Iranian agents accused in the United States of hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) Three Iranian agents have been charged with hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign in what the Justice Department says was a broad effort to undermine the former president and erode trust in the American electoral system.

Friday's action, coupled with sanctions and rewards for information leading to the capture of the accused hackers, is the latest attempt by the US government to expose what is seen as an attempt by Iran to interfere in elections by damaging Trump and causing general chaos. It comes as Iran has also been accused of threatening the lives of Trump and former officials and as US-Iran relations remain particularly tense, with Israel fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The defendants' own comments made clear they were attempting to undermine former President Trump's campaign ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. We know that Iran continues its brazen efforts to stoke discord, erode trust in the U.S. electoral process and promote its malicious activities, Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference announcing the charges.

All three accused hackers were employed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which cybersecurity analysts had previously linked to the intrusions. Since 2020, their operation aimed to compromise the email accounts of a wide range of targets, including a former ambassador to Israel, a former deputy director of the CIA, officials from the State and Defense departments, a former advisor U.S. Homeland Security and journalists, according to the indictment.

In May, prosecutors say, the defendants began trying to penetrate the Trump campaign, successfully breaking into the email accounts of campaign officials and other Trump allies. They then sought to weaponize the stolen campaign materials by releasing them to media outlets and people associated with President Joe Biden's campaign, in what is commonly referred to as a hack and leak operation. .

U.S. intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump's reelection, seeing it as likely to increase tensions between Washington and Tehran. The Trump administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iranian leaders to vow revenge.

The Trump campaign said earlier this week that it had been briefed by U.S. officials on real and specific assassination threats from Iran, although one official told The Associated Press that the briefing had been requested by the campaign and included no suggestion of a new threat against Trump. .

Iran's mission to the United Nations last month denied the allegations, calling them unfounded and lacking in credibility, saying Iran had neither the motive nor the intention to interfere in the elections. He challenged the United States to provide evidence and said that if the United States did so, we would respond accordingly.

The U.S. government has sought through multiple agencies this year to aggressively condemn election interference and foreign influence operations, a stark reversal from the government's response in 2016, when U.S. officials Obama administration have been criticized for their lack of transparency about the Russian interference they saw on Trump's behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions related to the hacking and the State Department offered rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of the defendants, who are not in custody. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a video statement that the FBI was working to expose Iran's aggressive behavior, including a plot to assassinate a journalist in New York and a ransomware attack targeting a hospital for children.

What you need to know about the 2024 elections

Despite the recent focus on Iran, U.S. officials have said Russia remains the main threat to the election. The Justice Department earlier this month charged two employees of RT, Russia's state media organization, with secretly funding a Tennessee-based content creation company with nearly $10 million to publish English-language videos on social media platforms favorable to the Russian government's interests and agenda.

The Iranian hacking came to light after the Trump campaign revealed on August 10 that it had been breached and that Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents.

Several major news organizations that said they leaked confidential information from the Trump campaign, including Politico, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have refused to publish it.

U.S. intelligence officials later linked Iran to a hack of the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign. They said the hack-and-dump operation aimed to sow discord, exploit divisions within American society and potentially influence the outcome of elections that Iran considers particularly high-consequence in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests.

The indictment makes clear that the accused hackers posed as U.S. officials and created fake email identities to try to dupe their victims.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source, an AOL email account identified only as Robert, forwarded what appeared to be a research brief the campaign had apparently conducted on Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. The document was dated February 23, nearly five months before Trump chose Vance as his vice presidential nominee.

Last week, officials also revealed that the Iranians sent unsolicited emails containing snippets of hacked information to people associated with the Biden campaign in late June and early July. None of the recipients responded. The Harris campaign said the emails looked like spam or a phishing attempt and condemned the Iranian outreach efforts as unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

One of the emails was sent on June 27, the date of the Biden-Trump debate, when a faltering performance by the president laid the groundwork for his announcement weeks later that he would not run again. An email offering the stolen information, according to the indictment, indicated that the debate was likely Biden's last chance in the race.

The author expressed negative feelings toward Trump and wrote, “So I am going to forward to you some documents that would be helpful in defeating him.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://apnews.com/article/trump-hacking-iran-justice-department-1d7d83ccdc6c879be2802142f1c47191 The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos