The US Justice Department is charging Iran with conspiring to assassinate Donald Trump

CNN
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The Justice Department on Friday filed federal charges in the foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before the presidential election.

According to court documents, Iranian officials asked 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri in September to focus on monitoring and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran, the Justice Department said.

This is a newly uncovered conspiracy and marks another alleged plot by the Iranian regime against Trump.

Prosecutors allege that Shakeri – who participated in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally hired by Iran's Revolutionary Guard to carry out additional killings of U.S. 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 citizen residing in Tehran, told investigators that the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election to move forward if he was unable to come up with a plan within that time frame because they believed Trump would lose .

Two other people indicted Friday, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who are American citizens, were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government surveil a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin. The Justice Department said they appeared in court for the first time on Thursday and will be held in custody pending trial.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the Iranian government's ongoing threats against individuals in the United States in statements released Friday.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as great a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” Garland said. “The Department of Justice has charged an Iranian regime operative who was hired by the regime to lead a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination attempts against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”

The U.S. government has repeatedly raised concerns that Iran could seek to retaliate for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top IRGC general, by trying to frame Trump, who carried out the attack or ordered his former advisors to be killed.

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 officer learned that Shakeri had previously lived in New York, he asked for help in “investigating” people in the United States. Shakeri said he met the officer more than a dozen times at 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 help monitor and plan assassinations on their behalf.

According to court documents, Shakeri would pay these criminal accomplices, like his two co-conspirators, to monitor the victims that Iranian officials wanted to assassinate. Iranian-American journalist and political activist Masih Alinejad confirmed on Friday that she was one of the targeted victims.

According to the Justice Department, Alinejad has been the target of several assassination attempts.

The two defendants are said to have monitored Alinejad at a speaking event and at her home in New York at the beginning of the year.

In a voice note between the defendants, Rivera told the others: “This son of a bitch is hard to catch, bro. And because she's hard to catch, there won't be an easy pull up unless you get lucky with the draw. Unless there’s luck in the draw.”

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

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 also asked Shakeri to help plan a mass shooting against Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, prosecutors said, prompting U.S. and Sri Lankan authorities to warn travelers of impending attacks. Shakeri also said he was tasked with the surveillance and murder of two people described only as Jewish businessmen living in New York City.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said all three men were specifically charged with conspiring against Donald Trump.