Iranians indicted for hacking Trump campaign in 2024 presidential race

A grand jury has indicted several Iranian nationals for their involvement in hacking Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, following an Iranian-led operation that reportedly stole internal campaign communications earlier this year.

This breach came to light after stolen materials were sent to journalists and individuals associated with President Joe Biden’s reelection efforts, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The names of the defendants and the exact charges remain undisclosed, as the grand jury secretly approved the indictment on September 26. The Justice Department is expected to formally announce the charges soon. Both the Justice Department and the Trump campaign have declined to comment.

The hacking incident was confirmed last month after news outlets received documents from an anonymous source. These included sensitive materials, such as a dossier on Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. The Trump campaign has blamed Tehran for orchestrating the breach, which aligns with a report from Microsoft indicating that Iranian hackers had targeted a high-ranking official in Trump's campaign with a spear-phishing email.

U.S. security agencies have also highlighted the Iranian effort to distribute stolen materials to individuals linked to Biden's team, though there is no evidence that the recipients engaged with the information. Google has reported similar Iranian hacking attempts on Biden's campaign, though without success.

This indictment is part of a broader effort by the U.S. government to publicly accuse foreign hackers, even though they often reside in countries hostile to the U.S., making their arrest unlikely. The Trump campaign also revealed this week that U.S. intelligence officials had informed Trump of Iranian assassination plots against him, with the Justice Department having charged a Pakistani man in July for conspiring with Iran to kill high-ranking U.S. officials, widely believed to include Trump.

By Tamilla Hasanova