Iranian plot to assassinate Trump thwarted by DOJ charges
The Department of Justice filed federal charges against three individuals on Friday who allegedly planned an attack on Donald Trump. The accused were reportedly acting on the orders of an Iranian agent, and the crime was to be carried out before the presidential elections in the U.S.
2:38 PM EST, November 8, 2024
According to the materials gathered during the investigation, in September, Iranian officials asked one of the accused men, Farhad Shakeri, to focus on tracking and ultimately murdering Donald Trump. Shakeri remains at large in Iran, the Department of Justice reported.
The revealed plot marks another alleged attempt on Trump's life planned by the regime in Iran.
Seven days to plan the assassination
Investigators claim that Shakeri was initially tasked by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with assassinating U.S. and Israeli citizens in the U.S. However, IRGC officials instructed Shakeri on October 7 to focus solely on Trump and that he had seven days to devise a plan for the assassination.
The other two accused, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, are American citizens. They were arrested in New York and have been charged with assisting the Iranian government in surveilling another U.S. citizen of Iranian descent. They will remain in custody until their trial.
U.S. concerns are confirmed
In statements, both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the continuous threats from the Iranian government against U.S. citizens.
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," Garland said.
The U.S. government has repeatedly expressed concerns that Iran might attempt to retaliate for the 2020 attack in which General Qasem Soleimani, a high-ranking Iranian general, was killed.
