The Justice Department plans to file criminal charges in the hacking of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, two law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The Trump campaign announced in August that it had been hacked. Later that month, federal officials said that Iran was behind the effort, which was part of an apparent hack-and-leak operation to spread files stolen from Trump’s campaign.
To date, the information obtained and disseminated to media organizations by the hackers has not spread widely. At least three American media outlets and one independent journalist have received what appear to be the hacked files from a person using the name “Robert” and emailed from an America Online (AOL) address, but they have not published those files.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment, but previously denied that Iran was behind the hacking operation.
The Washington Post was first to report the pending charges. Details of the charges and who they will be filed against are not currently known.
NBC News has emailed with one of the addresses used by “Robert,” in recent days, which would not respond when asked whether there are other plans to disseminate the Trump documents or about the full extent of the stolen files. Emails to the account bounced back Friday, indicating the account had been deleted.
Federal officials reiterated in a press call last week that the U.S. intelligence community believes Iran wants to hurt former President Trump’s campaign, whereas Russia wants to boost Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. The Justice Department charged employees of RT, a Russian-backed media network, of running an operation to illegally fund conservative influencers.
Cybersecurity experts have long warned that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps runs a highly skilled and persistent email phishing operation, usually to gather intelligence for Tehran.
Microsoft and Google both said earlier this year that they had observed IRGC hackers trying to hack the presidential campaigns. Google was more specific, and said that the hackers had gone after both the Trump campaign and President Joe Biden’s before he dropped out of the race.
U.S. authorities accused Iran ahead of the 2020 presidential election of a convoluted scheme to interfere by emailing Florida Democrats emails that appeared to come from the Proud Boys, a pro-Trump militia. The Justice Department charged two Iranians with conducting that operation in 2021.
