U.S. authorities today prosecuted two Iranians accused of plotting to run in the 2020 presidential election by launching an online campaign and imposing sanctions on six Iranian officials for their role in the alleged foreign involvement.
Seyed Mohammad Hossein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajad Qassian, 27, are accused of leaking classified election information from at least one state website. They are also accused of sending threatening e-mails to intimidate voters as well as a video with false information about alleged electoral weaknesses.
According to the indictment, they gained access to the computer network of an American company in order to spread false information about the elections, but this plan was prevented thanks to the intervention of FBC and the company itself, which was not named.
“The indictment describes how these two agents, based in Iran, launched a targeted, coordinated campaign to undermine confidence in the integrity of the US electoral system and sow discord among Americans,” said the attorney general. Olsen of the Department of Homeland Security of the Ministry of Justice.
Suspicions of Iranian involvement in the 2020 election first surfaced last October. Two weeks before the November election, Donald Trump administration officials said both Russia and Iran were trying to interfere in the election and had gained access to some voter data.
Following the announcement of the prosecution of the two, the Ministry of Finance announced that it had imposed sanctions on six other Iranians and an entity for attempting to influence the presidential election.
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