Feds charge two Iranians with interference in U.S. 2020 election
The campaign, first described by U.S. intel officials in October 2020, involved emails purporting to be from the far-right group the Proud Boys sent to thousands of voters.
By Ken Dilanian
The Justice Department announced charges Thursday against two Iranians who are accused of helping to orchestrate a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters in the 2020 election.
The campaign, which was first described by American intelligence officials in October 2020, involved emails to tens of thousands of registered voters purporting to be from the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys. The emails threatened the recipients with physical injury unless they switched parties and voted for President Donald Trump.
The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, adds that the two Iranian defendants allegedly tried to compromise voter registration websites in eleven states, “to create the appearance that election results could not be trusted” by misrepresenting that the election web sites could accept fraudulent ballots, a senior Justice Department official told reporters in a conference call.
One attempt was successful, prosecutors say, and the pair got information on more than 100,000 voters. The targeted state was not identified.
The defendants were identified as Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian. The Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on or about Kazemi and Kashian’s activities, officials said.
The pair is also charged with creating and disseminating a video containing “disinformation about purported election infrastructure vulnerabilities,” and with hacking into an unnamed U.S. media company’s computer network, an attack that was thwarted before any false claims could be sent.
“This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public. The department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges.”
The Iranians are not in custody, but the charges and sanctions will hamper their travel.
more:
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/feds-charge-two-iranians-alleged-interference-us-2020-election-rcna6027?cid=eml_nbn_20211118&user_email=d60e03639eee858a9d1f722503050fb5c4c275d9e0d473a7e1f6182e26eccb3c
Do something positive.
| 