The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges on Friday against an Iranian national involved in a plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump prior to the 2024 presidential election.
According to a criminal complaint, Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Iranian national, was directed by an unidentified Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official to assassinate Trump prior to Tuesday’s election.
In a Justice Department press release, officials wrote, “Shakeri Was Tasked by Iranian Regime with Surveilling and Plotting to Assassinate President-Elect Donald J. Trump.”
According to The Associated Press, Shakeri told investigators that an Iranian official instructed him to pause his work and develop a plan in just seven days to assassinate Trump. Shakeri claimed that the official told him that if he could not construct a plan in seven days, then the assassination plot would need to be paused until the election was over. The official believed that Trump was going to lose and that it would be easier to kill him after the election.
The Justice Department noted that Shakeri is still “at large and is believed to reside in Iran.” However, Justice Department officials announced that 49-year-old Carlisle Rivera and 36-year-old Jonathon Loadholt were arrested and charged for allegedly being recruited by Shakeri to kill Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad.
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The Justice Department’s criminal complaint revealed that Shakeri shared details of the alleged assassination plots during recorded phone call interviews with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in an attempt to get a reduced prison sentence for one of his associates in U.S. custody.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Friday’s press release. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”
Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt are currently facing multiple charges, including murder-for-hire, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
The Justice Department added, “Shakeri has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Government of Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.”
