The U.S. Justice Department announced the indictment Thursday of two Iranian nationals for "their involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord, in connection with the 2020 U.S. presidential election," according to a press release. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-iranian-nationals-charged-cyber-enabled-disinformation-and-threat-campaign-designed

Between August and November of 2020, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian allegedly got voter information from at least one state election website and then used that information to send threatening emails "to intimidate and interfere with voters."

They also allegedly attempted to access other state election-related websites. The two also allegedly created and distributed a video "containing disinformation about purported election infrastructure vulnerabilities."

The covert effort was publicly unmasked in October of last year when then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray held a news conference to say the authorities were aware of the Iranian actions and that they had been disrupted.

Now, the U.S. government is charging the individuals allegedly behind the effort. The Treasury Department also announced sanctions against Kazemi and Kashian, both of whom are believed to be in Iran, as well as the Iranian company they were working for, Emennet Pasargad. https://www.npr.org/2021/11/18/1056903692/2-suspected-iranian-hackers-are-charged-with-trying-to-intimidate-u-s-voters

"The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who leads the Justice Department's National Security Division. "The department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges."

Law enforcement officials said Facebook messages and emails from the Iranians to Republicans falsely claimed Democrats were planning to exploit security vulnerabilities in state voter databases to register non-existent voters. But the hackers also sent tens of thousands of emails to Democrats. They demanded recipients change their party affiliation and vote for President Donald Trump. It was also revealed that the Iranians had hacked into a media company that provides a content management system for dozens of newspapers, although officials did not reveal the name of the organization.

READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/us/politics/iranian-hackers-voter-intimidation-indicted.html