OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:17 PM – Friday, September 27, 2024
Three members of an Iranian paramilitary group were charged by the Justice Department on Friday for hacking Trump campaign documents and disclosing private information to Kamala Harris’s campaign.
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This follows after a spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the U.N. recently claimed that: “Having already unequivocally and repeatedly announced, Iran neither has any motive nor intent to interfere in the U.S. election, and it therefore categorically repudiates such accusations,” said the Iranian spokesperson in a statement. “Should the U.S. government genuinely seek the truth, it is incumbent upon them to formally and transparently provide their substantiated evidence.”
However, it has now become apparent that the Iranian spokesperson spoke too soon.
Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were charged for being part of a “wide-ranging hacking campaign” that targeted or contacted individuals from both U.S presidential campaigns, as well as journalists, current and former U.S. government officials, among others.
“The IRGC supports militant groups in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria, and Yemen. This ‘axis of resistance’ aims to rid the region of Western (namely U.S. and Israeli) influence… The IRGC’s ties to armed groups in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, help Iran project influence and power,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The hackers breached their victims’ accounts through phishing emails and other forms of social engineering, according to the 37-page indictment, and eventually gained control over a Trump campaign official’s account.
The men are accused of a number of offenses in the indictment, including identity theft, computer hacking, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and aiding and abetting.
“Such activity is part of Iran’s continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials that could be used to advance the malign activities of the IRGC, including ongoing efforts to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani,” the indictment states.
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