DOJ indicts three for Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump

CNN
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The Justice Department on Friday announced federal charges against three people in a foiled Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election.

According to court documents, Iranian officials asked one of the charged men, Farhad Shakeri, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri remains at large in Iran, the Justice Department said.

This is a newly revealed plot and marks another alleged attempt on Trump’s life by the Iranian regime.

Prosecutors allege that Shakeri — who participated in taped conversations with law enforcement — had initially been directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out other assassinations against American and Israeli citizens in the United States. But IRGC officials told Shakeri on Oct. 7 to focus only on Trump, court documents say, and that he had seven days to formulate an assassination plan.

Shakeri, an Afghan national living in Tehran, told investigators that if he was unable to come up with a plan within that time frame, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election to move forward, as they believed Trump would lose.

The other two defendants, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, who are US citizens, were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government monitor a separate US citizen of Iranian origin. They made their first court appearance Thursday, the Justice Department said, and are being held pending trial.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, in statements released Friday, condemned the continued threats by the Iranian government against individuals in the United States.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” Garland said. “The Justice Department has charged an Iranian regime asset who was tasked by the regime with leading a network of criminal operatives to advance Iran’s assassination plans against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”

The US government has repeatedly expressed concern that Iran may seek to retaliate for a 2020 US drone strike that killed General Qasem Soleimani, a top general in the IRGC, by trying to kill Trump, who ordered the strike, or his former advisers.

In a series of five interviews with the FBI, Shakeri said he met a senior member of the IRGC through his work in the Iranian oil and fuel business. When the official learned that Shakeri had previously lived in New York, he asked for help in “investigating” individuals in the United States. Shakeri said he met with the official more than a dozen times in meetings at various restaurants.

According to court documents, Shakeri relied on a “network of criminal associates” he met during his time in the New York prison system to supply Iranian officials with agents in the United States and to help run surveillance and plan assassinations on their behalf.

Shakeri would pay these criminal associates, as well as his two co-conspirators, to monitor the victims Iranian officials sought to murder, according to court documents. Iranian-American journalist and political activist Masih Alinejad confirmed Friday that she was one of the victims who was hit by.

According to the Ministry of Justice, Alinejad has been the target of several assassination plots.

The two defendants allegedly surveilled Alinejad at a speaking event earlier this year, as well as at her home in New York.

In a voice memo between the defendants, Rivera told the others, “This b*tch is hard to catch, bro. And because she’s hard to catch, there ain’t gonna be no simple pull up unless there’s luck of the draw. Unless is luck of the draw.”

In other notes, the defendants discussed where Alinejad spent her time in her home and how best to carry out and assassination.

According to the complaint, Rivera and Loadholt discussed a $100,000 payment with Shakeri to “take care of it already,” but wanted the payment upfront.

IRGC officials, prosecutors say, also asked Shakeri to help plan a mass shooting targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, prompting U.S. and Sri Lankan authorities to warn travelers of threats of an attack. Shakeri also said he was tasked with surveilling and assassinating two people described only as Jewish businessmen living in New York City.

This story has been updated with additional details.