Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with a group of students in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 2, 2022. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

The United States’ Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Friday sanctions on 7 individuals US officials say are tied to Iranian efforts to influence the American 2024 presidential election. 

In a Friday statement, the Department of Treasury claims that Iranian “state actors” engaged in a number of activities, such as hack-and-leak operations and spear-phishing, to impact American elections. The agency says that these individuals have attempted to “undermine confidence in the United States’ election processes and institution .” Thus, the U.S. government will block “all property and interests” belonging to the implicated parties. 

“The U.S. government continues to closely monitor efforts by malicious actors to influence or interfere in the integrity of our elections,” said Bradley T. Smith, the Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treasury, as part of a whole-of-government effort leveraging all available tools and authorities, remains strongly committed to holding accountable those who see to undermine our institutions.” 

Government agencies first acknowledged Iranian attempts to create instability among the American public in the summer of 2024, amid a deluge of demonstrations condemning Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas slaughters of roughly 1200 people across the Jewish state. According to the Department of Treasury, Iranian state actors have attempted to “gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns” to exercise “influence” over the American elections. The agency alleges that government actors for Iran, the chief global sponsor of terrorism, have utilized “hacking” attacks to impact the upcoming elections. 

According to the agency, Iranian agents have engaged in “cyber-enabled operations” during the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections in the U.S. Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members have gained unauthorized access to multiple accounts belonging to high-ranking members of a 2024 presidential campaign. These agents subsequently leaked the information to the media in an effort to influence electoral outcomes. The agents reportedly used “technical infrastructure” tied to Masoud Jalili, an actor with reported IRGC ties.

OFAC also claims that six employees and executives of Emennet Pasargad, an Iran-based cybersecurity firm, implemented an “online operation to intimidate and influence American voters.” The individuals—Fatemeh Sadeghi,  Elaheh Yazdi, Sayyed Mehdi Rahimi Hajjiabadi, Mohammad Hosein Abdolrahimi, and Rahmatollah Askarizadeh—accomplished this through sending  “threatening emails to intimidate voters.” 

In April, a confidential document leak indicated that the IRGC has helped plan a litany of anti-Israel protests in the United States. Iran’s support for anti-Israel demonstrations in the United States is well documented. The regime’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly heaped praise on anti-Israel protesters, referring to the demonstrations as a “courageous, humane resistance movement.” He has also commended the protesters as a “branch of the Resistance Front” against Israel. Flags representing Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed terrorist group — have regularly appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations across the United States.