The Justice Department plans to file criminal charges over the hacking of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, two law enforcement officials told NBC News.
Trump’s campaign announced in August that it had been hacked. Later that month, federal officials said Iran was behind the effort, which was part of an apparent hack-and-leak operation to distribute files stolen from Trump’s campaign.
To date, the information obtained and distributed by the hackers to media organizations has not been widely disseminated. At least three U.S. media outlets and one independent journalist received what appear to be the hacked files from a person using the name “Robert” and emailed them from an America Online (AOL) address, but they have not published the files.
A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to an email request for comment, but previously denied that Iran was behind the hacking operation.
The Washington Post was the first to report the pending charges. Details of the charges and who they will be filed against are not currently known.
NBC News emailed one of the addresses used by “Robert,” but there was no response when asked whether there were other plans to distribute the Trump documents or the full extent of the stolen files. There was also no response to a question about the pending charges.
Federal officials reiterated in a press conference last week that U.S. intelligence believes Iran seeks to harm former President Trump’s campaign, while Russia seeks to support Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. The Justice Department accused employees of RT, a Russian-backed media network, of conducting an operation to illegally fund conservative influencers.
Cybersecurity experts have long warned that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is conducting a highly sophisticated and persistent email phishing operation, mostly to gather intelligence for Tehran.
Microsoft and Google said earlier this year that they had spotted IRGC hackers attempting to hack the presidential campaigns. Google was more specific, saying the hackers had targeted both the Trump campaign and that of President Joe Biden before he withdrew from the race.
U.S. authorities accused Iran of an elaborate plan to interfere ahead of the 2020 presidential election by sending emails to Florida Democrats that appeared to come from the Proud Boys, a pro-Trump militia. The Justice Department charged two Iranians with carrying out that operation in 2021.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
