US federal authorities are moving to charge individuals allegedly connected to the Iranian government for a hack-and-leak operation against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the Washington Post reports.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the news outlet reported that the charges could come in a matter of days.
The Washington Post reports that the FBI investigation has focused on an online persona known as "Robert," suspected of acting on behalf of the Iranian government. This “individual” is accused of distributing stolen data from Trump advisers' email accounts to news organizations.
Last month, the FBI and US intelligence agencies confirmed that Iran was responsible for recent attempted hacks into the Trump and Biden-Harris presidential campaigns.
According to AP, which is also reporting the impending criminal charges by the Justice Department, the aim of the hack was to influence or interfere with the outcome of the November presidential election.
On Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official, told reports on Thursday in New York City that Iran “is making a greater effort to influence this year’s election than it has in prior election cycles and that Iranian activity is growing increasingly aggressive as this election nears.”
Last month, the head of DisinfoWatch told Iran International that as Iran appears to have stepped up its targeting of both presidential campaigns, there also seems to be coordination between Tehran and Moscow's information operations.
“The US and all western democracies need to be paying close attention and exposing them. The combined information and influence operations of Iran, Russia and China represent a serious threat to all western democracies - which we cannot afford to ignore,” Marcus Kolga said.
Trump’s campaign shared last month that it had been hacked and alleged that Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents.
In August, Meta reported potential hacking attempts on the WhatsApp accounts of US officials by Iranian actors amidst growing concerns over Tehran’s interference in US elections. These officials were associated with both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The company attributed these attempts to APT42, an Iranian hacker group widely believed to be linked to an intelligence division within Iran's military. This group has a history of conducting invasive surveillance operations, often targeting political figures and activists abroad.
In relation to the latest hack-and-leak attack, Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were reportedly given access to confidential material from inside the Trump campaign, with Politico reporting that that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account.
The AOL email account, identified as "Robert," sent what looked like a research dossier that appeared to have been compiled by the campaign on Ohio Senator JD Vance, who became the Republican vice-presidential nominee. The document, dated February 23, was created almost five months before Trump announced Vance as his running mate.
So far, the AP reports, each outlet has refused to reveal any details about what it received.
