U.S. INDICTS 2 IRANIANS IN ELECTION MEDDLING CAMPAIGN

Two Iranian men were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday, accused of a brazen hacking and disinformation campaign that targeted American voters in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Seyyed Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, allegedly sent threatening emails to try to scare voters, attempted to break into several states’ voting-related websites and gained access to a U.S. media company’s computer network.

Officials say the pair emailed thousands of voters in October, including many Democrats. They allegedly claimed to be Proud Boys and threatened the email recipients with physical attacks if they did not change party affiliation and vote for President Donald Trump. The emails seemed to target primarily voters in Florida and Alaska, officials said at the time.

The same illicit effort also pushed a video through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that claimed to show someone hacking into voter websites to create falsified overseas and absentee ballots, according to the indictment. The court filing said that video also falsely claimed to be affiliated with the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence that largely embraced President Donald Trump.

Unlike the threatening emails, officials said the phony video about fake ballots was pushed at Republicans.

Within days of the email campaign beginning, U.S. officials called a hastily assembled news conference to warn voters of the foreign influence operation and urge them not to believe the claims that were being sent.

Officials said Thursday that they do not believe anyone switched their party affiliation or voted for a different candidate as a result of the emails. Matthew G. Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, accused the two Iranians of waging “a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans.”

He said the department will continue to fight foreign disinformation campaigns “using all available tools, including criminal charges.”

Kazemi and Kashian also allegedly tried to break into 11 state voter registration and information websites, according to the indictment filed in federal court in New York.

Justice Department officials said the two men charged Thursday are believed to be in Iran, which makes it unlikely they will be brought to a U.S. courtroom anytime soon.