Three people have been charged in an alleged Iran-linked plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, an Iranian-American activist and two Jewish Americans living in New York, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in New York.
Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt are charged with murder for hire, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Rivera and Loadholt were arrested, while Shakeri, whom the FBI described as an “asset” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to be in Tehran.
The IRGC assigned Shakeri to surveil and kill Trump to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, according to the complaint.
Iranian protesters hold posters of the late Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, center and left, killed in Iraq in a 2020 U.S. drone strike, during an annual rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, November 11, 2020. 3, 2024.
Vahid Salemi/AP
“There are few actors in the world that pose as serious a threat to U.S. national security as Iran. The Department of Justice has indicted an Iranian regime asset who had been charged by the regime with leading a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald J. Trump,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.
Shakeri emigrated to the United States but was deported in 2008 after serving a prison sentence for theft, according to the Justice Department. While in prison, he met Rivera and Loadholt and hired them to target an Iranian-American activist living in Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
Although she is not named in the complaint, the activist fits the description of Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has criticized the Iranian government and who has been the target of multiple conspiracies. Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against the IRGC brigadier general last month. General Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with alleged murder plot against Alinejad.
Alinejad later posted on social media that she was one of the targets, writing: “I’m shocked. Just learned from the @FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in connection with a new plot to kill myself at Fairfield University, where I was supposed to go.” give a speech.”
The IRGC also charged Shakeri with carrying out other assassinations against American and Israeli citizens located in the United States, including Trump, the complaint claims.
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting in Cumming, Georgia on October 15, 2024.
Élie Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images
Between mid-September and late September, Shakeri told the FBI that the IRGC official asked him to “put aside his other efforts” and “focus on surveillance and, ultimately, the assassination of the “Former President of the United States Donald J. Trump,” the complaint says. When Shakeri told his superior that it would cost a lot of money, the IRGC official reportedly responded “we have already spent a lot of money…so money is not a problem.”
Shakeri told the FBI that in an October 7 meeting with his IRGC handler, he was asked to provide a plan within seven days to kill Trump. If this could not be done within that time frame, the IRGC would suspend its plan to kill Trump until after the election “because IRGC Official 1 believed that [Trump] would lose the elections and, afterwards, it would be easier to assassinate [Trump]” the complaint states.
He also said he was assigned to monitor two Jewish American citizens residing in New York and that an IRGC official offered him $500,000 for the murder of either victim, according to the complaint . He was also responsible for targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, according to the complaint.
“Actors led by the Iranian government continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on American soil and abroad. This must stop,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today’s charges are another message to those who continue their efforts: we will relentlessly pursue bad actors, no matter where they reside, and we will stop at nothing to bring to justice those who harm our safety and security. to our safety.”
