Several Iranians have been indicted by a US grand jury on charges of hacking Republicans Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Politico reported Thursday.
The names of the defendants and specific criminal charges were not immediately available, Politico said. Without citing sources, it said the grand jury secretly approved the indictment on Thursday afternoon and the Justice Department was expected to announce charges as soon as Friday.
The Justice Department declined to comment and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump campaign said in August that some of its internal communications had been hacked, and blamed the Iranian government.
Trump, who is running for a second four-year term in the White House, said on Wednesday that Iran may have been behind recent attempts to assassinate him and suggested that if he were president and some other country would be a US presidential candidate. If it was threatened, it would be in danger. Was torn to pieces”.
Iran said on Thursday that allegations that it had targeted former US officials were baseless.
Trump made the comments after US intelligence officials briefed him a day earlier about “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him”, according to his campaign.
Federal authorities are investigating assassination attempts targeting Trump at a golf course in Florida in mid-September and a rally in Pennsylvania in July. There has been no public suggestion by law enforcement agencies of the involvement of Iran or any other foreign power in any of the incidents.
Also on Thursday, Trump raised the idea of striking a deal with Iran that would aim at ending hostilities. President was elected on 5 November,
“I would do that,” Trump said, without specifying what kind of deal he was talking about.