The US exposes rapists in Iran who have a plan to kill Trump

(UPDATE) WASHINGTON, DC – United States prosecutors announced charges on Friday in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump and a prominent dissident Iranian-American journalist.

The foiled Trump assassination plot was allegedly orchestrated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to avenge the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in January 2020 in a US strike ordered by the then-president, the ministry said. Justice.

GOOD SPIRIT President-elect Donald Trump dances after speaking at an election night watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on November 6, 2024. AP PHOTO

Farhad Shakeri, 51, an Afghan believed to be in Iran, was ordered by the IRGC to come up with a plan to kill Trump, the ministry said in a statement.

Shakeri and two other men – Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both from New York – were separately charged in a plot to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York.

Rivera and Loadholt are both in US custody and appeared in court in New York on Thursday.

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen efforts to attack American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” said Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation .

Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the US presidential elections on Tuesday, faced two separate assassination attempts this year, including a shooting at a campaign rally in which a bullet grazed his ear.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday called allegations that Tehran was behind a plot against Trump “totally baseless.”

The ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is involved in an assassination attempt against former or current US officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement.

‘Network of criminal associates’

The Justice Department described suspect Shakeri as an “IRGC asset living in Tehran.”

It says he immigrated to the US as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for theft.

“In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the US to supply the IRGC with operatives who can monitor and assassinate IRGC targets,” the department said.

It also says that Loadholt and Rivera, at Shakeri’s direction, spent months conducting surveillance on a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent who is an outspoken critic of Tehran and has been the target of multiple previous kidnapping and assassination plots.

She was not identified in court documents but appears to be dissident journalist Masih Alinejad.

A Revolutionary Guard general was charged by U.S. prosecutors in late October in connection with a separate plot to kill Alinejad, who lives in New York.

‘Money is not a problem’

According to the indictment against Shakeri, he allegedly revealed the plot to assassinate Trump in telephone conversations with FBI agents in recent months.

Shakeri conducted the conversations with the officers because he hoped to get a reduced sentence for a person imprisoned in the U.S., the report said.

Shakeri told the FBI that he was approached by an IRGC official in September about organizing Trump’s assassination.

He reportedly told the IRGC official that it would cost a “huge” amount of money, to which the official replied, “Money is not a problem.”

On October 7, Shakeri said he was asked to come up with a plan to kill Trump within seven days.

The IRGC official reportedly said that if Shakeri failed to come up with a plan within that time frame, the IRGC would try to kill Trump after the election because they estimated he would lose and that it would be easier to kill him after the elections.

US states have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking to assassinate US officials in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing. Tehran has rejected the accusations.

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty in New York earlier this year to charges that he tried to hire a hitman to kill an American politician or official.

The State Department also announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the capture of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.