2 Iranians charged with threatening U.S. voters

WASHINGTON — Two suspected Iranian computer hackers have been charged in a broad campaign of election interference aimed at intimidating American voters during last year’s presidential race and undermining confidence that the results of the contest could be trusted.

The activities, prosecutors say, exploited not only computer vulnerabilities but also existing social divisions to sow discord and confusion among voters. The Iranian cyber campaign included bogus emails that targeted Democratic and Republican voters with different messages, the distribution of a fabricated video that purported to show acts of election fraud and an unsuccessful effort the day after the election to gain access to an American media company’s network.

The overall effort attracted publicity in the run-up to the November 2020 election, when law enforcement and intelligence officials held an unusual evening news conference to accuse Iran of orchestrating an email campaign aimed at intimidating Democratic voters in battleground states so they would vote for Trump.

The indictment makes clear that even as much of the public concern about foreign interference in last year’s election centered on Russian efforts to disparage Trump’s challenger, Joe Biden, Iranian hackers were engaged in a wide-ranging influence campaign of their own.

U.S. intelligence officials said in a March assessment that Iran’s efforts were aimed at harming Trump’s reelection bid, and probably authorized by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but that there was no evidence that Tehran or any other foreign actor had done anything to change the vote totals.