The Department of Justice announced charges Thursday against two Iranian nationals who are accused of engaging in a campaign to intimidate voters and influence the 2020 \u2026<\/b>
\nThe Department of Justice announced charges Thursday against two Iranian nationals who are accused of engaging in a campaign to intimidate voters and influence the 2020 election. Between August and November of 2020, Iranian nationals Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian allegedly targeted election websites in 11 states and obtained information from more than 100,000 American voters. The pair then is alleged to have posed as members of the Proud Boys to send emails to Democrat voters, threatening them to vote for former President Donald Trump, according to an indictment. Around the same time, Hosein and Kashian sent Facebook messages and emails while posing as Proud Boys to Trump administration officials, Republican Congress members, Trump campaign officials, and news organizations claiming that election infrastructure vulnerabilities were being exploited to change votes, according to the Justice Department. When the incident was first reported in late October 2020, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray held a press conference announcing that Iran and Russia were identified as having taken actions to interfere in American elections. At the time, Ratcliffe said the move was designed to harm Trump\u2019s campaign. According to the Department of Justice, the alleged conspirators \u201cengaged in an online voter intimidation campaign involving the dissemination of a threatening message\u201d that purported to be from the Proud Boys to \u201ctens of thousands of registered voters.\u201d Those emails were distributed to registered Democrats, who were \u201cthreatened\u2026 with physical injury if they did not change their party affiliation and vote for President Trump,\u201d the agency said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday that the Department of Justice\u2019s actions demonstrates that we will hold state-sponsored actors to account for attempting to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and U.S. institutions.\u201d \u201cToday\u2019s designations represent the collective efforts of the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,\u201d Blinken continued to say. \u201cThe U.S. government took decisive and disruptive action against those seeking to interfere with the sanctity of our elections, including the FBI warning the public of the attempts ahead of the 2020 elections.\u201d Other than the indictments, the State Department said it is offering a $10 million reward for information on Kazemi\u2019s and Kashian\u2019s activities. The Department of Treasury also sanctioned the two individuals along with an Iranian cybersecurity firm. \u201cTreasury will continue to counter efforts to undermine the integrity of our election systems,\u201d Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in the statement. \u201cToday\u2019s action underscores the U.S. government\u2019s commitment to hold state-sponsored actors accountable for attempting to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and U.S. institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n