Three Charged in Iran-Linked Plot to Assassinate President-Elect Donald Trump

Three individuals have been charged in an alleged Iran-linked plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, along with an Iranian-American activist and two Jewish Americans living in New York, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday in New York.

Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera, and Jonathan Loadholt are facing charges of murder-for-hire, as announced by the U.S. Department of Justice. While Rivera and Loadholt have been arrested, Shakeri, described by the FBI as an “asset” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is believed to be in Tehran.

The IRGC allegedly tasked Shakeri with surveilling and killing Trump as part of a broader effort to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Shakeri was also instructed to carry out other assassinations against U.S. and Israeli citizens in the United States, including Trump.

Shakeri, who emigrated to the United States but was deported in 2008 after serving prison time for robbery, met Rivera and Loadholt while in prison. He hired them to target an Iranian-American activist living in Brooklyn, according to the complaint. Shakeri was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either of two Jewish-American citizens he was tasked with surveilling in New York City. Additionally, he was tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized the gravity of the threat posed by Iran, stating, “There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran. 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 J. Trump”.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams reiterated the commitment to pursuing those involved in such plots, saying, “Actors directed by the Government of Iran continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on U.S. soil and abroad. This has to stop. Today’s charges are another message to those who continue in their efforts — we will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of bad actors, no matter where they reside, and will stop at nothing to bring to justice those who harm our safety and security”.