Three Iranians charged in the United States.

Three Iranians acting on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, the armed wing of the Tehran regime, are being prosecuted in the United States for hacking Donald Trump’s campaign, US authorities announced on Friday, September 27.

The judicial information made public by Washington sheds a little more light on the series of documents stolen from the Republican candidate. This summer, Donald Trump’s teams announced that they had been victims of a hack before US authorities named Iran responsible for these operations. At the same time, members of Joe Biden’s campaign – before his withdrawal from the race for the White House – but also American journalists, were contacted directly by hackers, who offered them access to certain stolen documents.

The American justice system thus gives a name and a face to these hackers: Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yaser Balaghi present themselves as experienced cyber hackers, engaged since January 2020 in a vast operation with multiple objectives. According to the indictment, they attacked in particular, without success, members of the White House, the National Security Council, the Ministry of Defense and the CIA, but also journalists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think tanks or members of United Nations (UN) staff.

Hackers attacked Trump campaign starting in May

It was in May 2024 when these hackers, according to US justice, became especially interested in Donald Trump’s campaign. Iran would take a dim view of the Republican’s return to the White House: it was he who ordered the drone attack that killed Ghassem Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guard and architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East, on January 3, 2020. .

After using phishing operations to access the emails of several campaign officials, they managed to steal information about the preparation for the June presidential debate, as well as about Donald Trump’s possible running mates.

At least part of this loot was sent to Joe Biden’s campaign entourage, specifically on June 27, a few hours before what will be the last televised debate of the Democratic candidate before his withdrawal from the race for the White House. According to judicial authorities, the Democratic camp did not react to these mailings and collaborated with the federal police, responsible for the investigation. The documents were also sent to several editorial offices: all of them decided that, given their origin, their content was not interesting enough to be published.

Only in the last few days an independent journalist decided to make public the document prepared by Donald Trump’s team that lists all the potentially compromising information about JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, which earned him the journalist’s expulsion from the social network. .

“Undermining the former president’s campaign”

This legal accusation confirms the growing nuisance power of Iranian hackers and the growing interest they have in American political life. These operations are part of the framework of “Iran’s attempts to sow discord and undermine confidence in the US electoral system”declared Justice Minister Merrick Garland during a press conference. “The defendants clearly said they wanted to undermine former President Trump’s campaign for the 2024 election.”Mr. Garland stressed.

The message from the US government is clear: it is the American people, not a foreign power, who decide the outcome of our elections. Not Iran and its malicious cyber actions »said. “Not Russia” AND “Not China”added the minister, in reference to the attempts at interference attributed to these two countries by the United States.

The US Treasury Department also announced sanctions against seven people for their alleged involvement in “Iran’s operations to influence or interfere in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections” – He is one of three defendants, as well as six employees of an Iranian cybersecurity company, Emennet Pasargad.

The latter, already affected by US sanctions, is a subcontractor of the regime known to have orchestrated numerous cyber operations. In particular, it was she who was accused, in 2023, by Microsoft of having committed computer hacking against charlie hebdo. Data stolen from the satirical newspaper’s servers, including subscribers’ postal and email addresses, had been put up for sale on at least two specialized forums. US authorities also accused this same company of having been behind a destabilization campaign during the 2020 presidential election, during which they sent intimidating emails to some US voters.