US accuses Iran of preparing an assassination attempt on Trump

The US Department of Justice accuses Iran of preparing to assassinate a critic of the Iranian regime and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The US Department of Justice announced this in a press release.

According to the ministry, Iranian operative Farhad Shakeri hired several accomplices in the New York area. Their task was to track down and kill a US citizen of Iranian descent who was a critic of the Iranian government.

“There are few states in the world that pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran. The Department of Justice has indicted an Iranian regime asset charged by the regime with leading a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plans against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland shared in an official statement.

“The indictments announced today expose Iran’s ongoing brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders, and dissidents critical of the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in a press release.

The “Iranian regime” also instructed Shakeri to conduct intelligence and plan the assassination of President-elect Donald Trump.

It is reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been the contracting party of the planned assassinations.

According to the indictment, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is actively attacking citizens of the United States and its allies. The aim is to silence dissidents who criticize the Iranian regime and to avenge the death of the then Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qassem Soleimani. He was killed by an American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

Conspirators

Shakeri is reportedly an IRGC operative and resides in Tehran, Iran. He immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for robbery. He used contacts he made in prison in the United States to organize the murders.

Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, were indicted on November 9 in connection with their involvement in a conspiracy to murder an Iranian-American citizen in New York City.

Rivera was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, and Lodholt was arrested in Staten Island, New York. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran.

At his direction, and with the promise of a $100,000 reward, Loadholt and Rivera spent months tracking and plotting the assassination of a regime critic living in the United States.

In addition, according to statements made by Shakeri and recorded by law enforcement agents, the IRGC instructed Shakeri to carry out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens in the United States. In particular, Shakeri said that on October 7, 2024, he had been instructed to develop a plan to assassinate Donald Trump. However, he stated that he had not intended to plan Trump’s assassination within the time frame set by the IRGC.

The case is being investigated by the FBI office in New York. The investigation is being assisted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in New York and the New York Drug Enforcement Administration.

Similar incidents

This is not the first such plot. Iran is actively recruiting foreign nationals to commit murders abroad. Thus, at the end of October 2024, it became known that Russian-speaking Israelis had been recruited to commit terrorist attacks and murders.

In particular, 35-year-old Vladimir Verkhovsky from Tel Aviv was charged with working for Iran in a plot to kill an Israeli scientist for $100,000. The indictment, filed in the Lod District Court, charges Verkhovsky with crimes such as contact with a foreign agent, carrying and transporting weapons, and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.