Three people charged in connection with an alleged Iran-linked assassination plot against Trump

Three people have reportedly been charged with involvement in an Iran-linked attempt to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday.

Three men have been indicted for their ties to an alleged plot to assassinate a critic of the Iranian regime on U.S. soil and a broader effort to conspiracies against Trump and other enemies of Tehran, according to to the DOJ. Two suspects – Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, both from New York City – have been arrested, while Farhad Shakeri of Iran remains at large and is believed to be in his home country.

“Few actors in the world pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” 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. We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill on American soil an American journalist who was a prominent critic of the regime. We will not support the Iranian regime’s efforts to endanger the American people and American national security.”

Indictment against Iran Through Nick Pope on Scribd

The DOJ describes Shakeri as one Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) ‘asset’ who used contacts he made in US prison to carry out plots against Iranian regime targets. The IRGC asked Shakeri to devise a plot to assassinate Trump on October 7, although he reportedly did not intend to develop a strategy to do so within the timeline requested by the IRGC, a State Department-identified one. Foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

All three men have been charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy. Shakeri is also accused of providing support to an FTO, according to the DOJ.

The IRGC agent who allegedly asked Shakeri to devise a plot to assassinate the president-elect gave Shakeri a week to come up with a plan, stating that the IRGC would stop its efforts to assassinate Trump after that time pause until after the American elections. according to to the DOJ complaint. The IRGC agent who allegedly instructed Shakeri believed Trump would lose the election and would therefore be easier to target, the indictment said.

“President-elect Trump is aware of the attempted assassination plot by the Iranian terrorist regime,” Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Nothing will stop President Trump from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen efforts to target American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – a designated foreign terrorist organization – has conspired with criminals and assassins to attack and shoot Americans on American soil, and that simply will not be tolerated.”

During his first term, Trump and his administration cracked down on the Iranian regime with sanctions and by eliminating the former IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani in 2020. The president-elect has pledged to significantly harden America’s stance toward the Iranians again in his second term in the White House.