Federal law enforcement officials foiled a second alleged Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump this week.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against multiple individuals who were involved in plots to murder an Iranian dissident, two Jewish Americans, and Trump on U.S. soil.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “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.”
Prosecutors indicted Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, on multiple charges, including murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, money laundering conspiracy, conspiring 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.
Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be inside Iran. If convicted on all counts he could face 100 years in prison.
“Shakeri is an [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] asset residing in Tehran, Iran,” prosecutors said. “Shakeri immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or about 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction. In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States to supply the IRGC with operatives to conduct surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets.”
Prosecutors said that he hired two individuals to kill the Iranian dissident and the two Jewish Americans.
However, with the elections approaching, the IRGC told Shakeri to pause his efforts to kill the dissident and the two Jewish Americans because they wanted him to focus on killing Trump.
“SHAKERI indicated to IRGC Official-1 that this would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money,” the indictment said. “In response, IRGC Official-1 said that ‘we have already spent a lot of money [s]o the money’s not an issue,’ which SHAKERI understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4’s assassination.”
During a meeting just one month ago with the IRGC official, Shakeri was instructed to have a plan in place to assassinate Trump within a week and that if he could not do it that Iran would put the plan on hold because they believed Trump “would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate” him after losing.
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Federal authorities arrested Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, on Thursday for their alleged involvement in the plots to murder the Iranian dissident and the two Jewish Americans.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated.”
This is the second known assassination plot against Trump from Iran that federal law enforcement have disrupted.
