WASHINGTON

The US Justice Department announced Friday it charged three Iranian hackers for targeting former President Donald Trump’s campaign and American officials.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference that the US is seeing increasingly aggressive Iranian cyberactivity ahead of the presidential race in November.

"Moments ago, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging three hackers working for the Iranian government with material support for terrorism, computer fraud, wire fraud and identity theft for their roles in these cyberattacks," he said.

The hackers are Iranian nationals residing in Iran, he said, identified as Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi, who Garland said "conspired with others to deploy a years-long wide-ranging hacking operation on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC."

"The operation targeted the email accounts of current and former American public officials, journalists and most recently individuals associated with US political campaigns," he said. "The defendant's own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump's campaign in advance of the 2024 US presidential election.”

He also said the Justice Department is committed to countering the threat that Iran poses to US democracy, national security and allies in the international community.

"As we approach the upcoming election, I want to reiterate that the justice department will not tolerate attempts by Iran or by any foreign power to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy," he said.

"Together with our partners across the federal government, we will use every tool we have to counter and disrupt the efforts of Iran as well as Russia and China to exploit our democratic system of government," added Garland.