Iranian assets charged in plot to assassinate Trump, DOJ says

The Justice Department says it has thwarted a case Iranian conspiracy to assassinate newly elected President Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the election.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City says an unnamed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official in September asked Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, to focus on surveilling and ultimately killing of the former president of the United States. States, Donald J. Trump.”

“Few actors in the world pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. said in a statement. “The Department of Justice has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was directed by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iranian assassination plots against his targets, including newly elected President Donald Trump.

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“We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and assassinate on U.S. soil an American journalist who was a prominent critic of the regime,” Garland added to. “We will not support the Iranian regime’s efforts to endanger the American people and American national security.”

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The Justice Department says Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran, “immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison on a theft conviction .”

“Shakeri informed law enforcement that on October 7, 2024, he was instructed to devise a plan to assassinate President-elect Donald J. Trump,” it added.

Trump was referred to in the lawsuits as “Victim-4.”

“According to Shakeri, during his meeting with IRGC Official-I on or about October 7, 2024, IRGC Official-I instructed Shakeri to come up with a plan to kill Victim-4 within seven days. If Shakeri failed to put forward a plan within seven days, In that time frame, IRGC Official-I continued, the IRGC would suspend its plan to kill Victim-4 until after the US presidential election, because IRGC- official-I estimated that Victim-4 would lose the election and afterward it would be easier to kill Victim-4,” the documents said.

“(Shakeri) also stated that he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish-American citizens living in New York City and that he was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either victim. He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka,” the Justice Department said. added.

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Federal prosecutors also charged and arrested Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, “in connection with their alleged involvement in a plot to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent in New York.”

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation tells Fox News that the suspect involves an Iranian American Masih Alinejad.

“On Shakeri’s instructions, Loadholt and Rivera surveilled an American citizen of Iranian descent living in the United States (Victim-1) for months. Victim-1 is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime and has been the target of multiple previous kidnapping and/or assassination plots led by the government of Iran,” the Justice Department said. “In exchange for Shakeri’s promise of $100,000, Rivera and Loadholt repeatedly attempted to locate Victim-1 for murder.”

Prosecutors say that during their efforts to locate and kill Alinejad, Shakeri, Loadholt and Rivera shared messages about their progress and photos related to their plan.

“For example, in or around February 2024, Rivera and Loadholt sent a message about an incoming payment from Shakeri and then traveled to Fairfield University, where Victim-1 was scheduled to appear, and took photographs on campus,” the DOJ said. “In one voice, Shakeri told Rivera that Victim-1 spent most of her time in certain locations in her home, telling Rivera that ‘you just have to be patient… You have to wait and be patient to catch her when she enters the house. or come out, or follow her out somewhere and take care of it. Don’t even think about going in. It’s a suicide attack.’”

All three suspects now face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy, which carry maximum penalties of 10 to 20 years in prison.

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Shakeri has also been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the government of Iran, each of which carries a maximum The penalty is twenty years in prison, according to prosecutors.