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Video Transcript

FBI Director Christopher Wray: I'm Chris Wray, the FBI Director.

Today's charges represent the culmination of a thorough and long-running FBI investigation that has resulted in the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their roles in a wide-ranging hacking campaign sponsored by the government of Iran. 

These individuals—employees of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—targeted a U.S. political campaign, current and former U.S. officials, and members of the American media—all in an attempt to sow discord and undermine our democracy.

These hackers impersonated U.S. government officials, used the fake personas they created to engage in spearphishing, and then exploited their unauthorized access to trick even more people and steal even more confidential information. 

Last week, the FBI released a statement—along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—exposing Iran's attempts to steal nonpublic campaign material from former President Trump's 2024 election campaign.

That statement laid bare Iran's attempts to influence our elections and inflame divisions in our society by leaking that information to President Biden's campaign and to the media. 
 
Let's be clear what we're talking about here: attempts by a hostile foreign government to steal campaign information from one presidential candidate and then shopping around both to that candidate's opponent and the media.

And while there's no indication that any of the recipients of the stolen campaign information actually replied, Iran's intent was clear: to sow discord and shape the outcome of our elections. 

For years now, we at the FBI have been calling out Iran's aggressive behavior—whether it's Iran's reckless cyber operations, including a ransomware attack on a New England children's hospital, Iran's plots to assassinate U.S. officials on American soil, their attempts to murder an American journalist here in the U.S. who dared publicize the Iranian government's human rights abuse, or their targeted hacks to influence our last presidential election in 2020. 

The conduct laid out in today's indictment is just the latest example of Iran's brazen behavior. So, today, the FBI would like to send a message to the government of Iran: You and your hackers can't hide behind your keyboards. If you try to meddle in our elections, we're going to hold you accountable. If you try to attack our infrastructure or commit violence against our citizens, we're going to disrupt you.

And as long as you keep attempting to flout the rule of law, you're going to keep running into the FBI, because we're going to leverage all of our partnerships and use every tool at our disposal to protect the American people and defend our democracy.  
 
Thank you.