Justice Department accuses Iranian operatives of plot to kill Trump

The Department of Justice announced criminal charges Friday against an alleged Iranian operative accused of plotting to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.

The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind an effort to surveil and kill Mr. Trump.

“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 Trump,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime.”

The Justice Department said Tehran-based IRGC asset Farhad Shakeri used a network of criminal associates he met in U.S. prisons to supply the Iranian government with operatives needed to conduct surveillance and carry out assassinations. Shakeri was deported from the U.S. more than 15 years ago after serving 14 years for a robbery conviction. 

Shakeri said the Iranian government tasked him in September with prioritizing the killing of Mr. Trump, identified as Victim-4 in the criminal complaint.  

Shakeri said the IRGC indicated it had already spent a “lot of money” trying to kill Mr. Trump and was willing to spend far more to assassinate the president-elect. 

“According to Shakeri, during his meeting with IRGC Official-1 on or about October 7, 2024, IRGC Official-1 directed Shakeri to provide a plan within seven days to kill Victim-4,” the complaint said. “If Shakeri was unable to put forth a plan within that time frame, IRGC Official-1 continued, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Victim-4 until after the U.S. presidential [election], because IRGC Official-1 assessed that Victim-4 would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate Victim-4.”

Shakeri told the FBI he did not intend to propose a plan to kill Mr. Trump in the time frame set by the IRGC. 

Other efforts to assassinate Mr. Trump during the 2024 campaign failed, and Iran’s assessment of the election’s outcome was wrong.

The Justice Department said Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.

The department also said it arrested Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who are accused of being recruits for Shakeri’s targeting of a journalist. All three have been charged with murder for hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire and money laundering conspiracy.  

The FBI obtained information from Shakeri via a series of telephone interviews with FBI agents, including one on Thursday. According to the complaint, Shakeri said his reason for participating in the interviews was to obtain a reduced sentence for an unnamed individual being held in a U.S. prison. 

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray praised the bureau for thwarting Iran’s attempt to kill Mr. Trump. 

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil, and that simply won’t be tolerated,” Mr. Wray said in a statement. “Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, their deadly schemes were disrupted.”