A team of Iranian hackers impersonated Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in an effort to extract information from people close to former President Donald Trump, CNN reported.
An indictment unsealed on Friday alleges that the three Iranian men gained access to the email account of a Trump campaign official this summer, which allowed them to steal debate-preparation material and information on possible vice presidential candidates. The practice is known as “spear phishing” among hackers. Among the people whose accounts were compromised were Roger Stone, the veteran Republican dirty trickster previously pardoned by Trump before he left office.
The Justice Department also said that the men leaked some of the information they stole to the media in an effort to create discord in advance of the election. The first part of the leak was finally published on Thursday by independent reporter Ken Klippenstein, resulting in him being banned from X.
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Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi face charges of identity theft and wire fraud. The indictment says they were acting on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Although Ginni Thomas is not mentioned by name in the indictment, it says that the hackers created a fake email using the identity of a “spouse of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice.”
CNN reported that this is Thomas.
The account was created in April 2020, but wasn’t used in the hacking efforts until this year. Between April and May 2024, the email was used as part of a phishing campaign that targeted, among others, a former security adviser to a former president.
Ginni Thomas, pictured with husband Clarence at a Trump White House state dinner, is an arch conservative who previously made headlines with her support for Donald Trump’s false election victory claims.
Erin Scott/ReutersIn addition to being the wife of a Supreme Court justice, Thomas is a conservative activist. She made headlines for sending texts to Donald Trump’s then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, on Jan. 6, 2021, urging him to overturn the election—as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
One read, “Biden and the Left [are] attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Thomas, a conservative firebrand, claims that she does not influence her husband, a conservative firebrand.
Thomas was one of a number of identities fraudulently used by the hackers to target the Trump campaign. The others have not been named but the victims detailed by the Justice Department include a series which appear closely linked to Trump, suggesting that the use of names such as Ginni Thomas was a successful move by the Iranians. Among those who fell for the phishing scam were a former deputy director of the CIA, a former ambassador to Israel, an ex-State Department adviser who appears to have advised the failed Nikki Haley campaign for president, and a former presidential homeland security adviser.
Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed the indictment on Friday.
“The defendants’ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 US presidential election,” he told reporters.
“These authoritarian regimes, which violate the human rights of their own citizens, do not get a say in our country’s democratic process,” Garland said.
According to the FBI, the hackers tried to send some material to a member of the Biden-Harris campaign, who did not respond.
