Justice Department brings criminal charges in Iranian murder-for-hire plan targeting Donald Trump
- FBI investigators allegedly discovered the plot while interviewing an Afghan national who was deported from the U.S. more than 15 years ago after he served prison time for robbery.
- According to the complaint, the Iranian government is actively assaulting, kidnapping and murdering nationals of the United States and its allies in a bid to silence dissidents critical of the regime.
Federal prosecutors revealed Friday that the Iranian government plotted to kill Donald Trump in the months before he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris and was reelected president.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court just days after the presidential election, FBI investigators discovered the plot to kill Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, 51, an Afghan national who was deported from the U.S. more than 15 years ago after he served prison time for robbery.
In voluntary telephone interviews with the FBI, Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — an Iranian military and counterintelligence agency designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department — told him in mid-to-late September to “focus on surveilling, and ultimately, assassinating” Trump.
Shakeri told the FBI, according to the 100-page complaint, that he warned the Iranian official that the assignment would cost a “huge” amount of money.
“We have already spent a lot of money,” the contact responded. “The money’s not an issue.”
The Republican former president survived two assassination attempts during the campaign: on July 13, a bullet grazed his right ear as he spoke at a rally near Butler, Pa; on Sept. 15, a man who allegedly pointed a gun at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., while Trump was playing on the course was arrested and charged with plotting to kill the former president.
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In early October, less than a month before the election, the Iranian contact told Shakeri to come up with a plan within seven days to kill Trump, the complaint alleges. If Shakeri was unable to come up with a plan in that time, the official said, the Iranian regime would pause its plan to kill Trump until after the election.
Shakeri said the Iranians assumed Trump would lose the election and be surrounded with less security after his White House bid, according to the complaint. Shakeri told the FBI he did not plan to propose a plan to kill Trump within the seven-day time frame.
Shakeri, who was deported in 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for robbery, remains at large and is believed to reside in Iran.
Two other men — Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, N.Y. — also were charged with participating in other assassination plots, including one targeting an Iranian American journalist who had been a prominent critic of the Iranian government.
Rivera and Loadholt were arrested Thursday, presented before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan and ordered detained pending trial.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Atty. Gen. Merrick B. Garland said. “We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
Federal officials have for years accused Iran of attempting to target U.S. government officials. Last summer, the Justice Department charged Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran, with attempting to commit an act of terrorism and murder-for-hire as part of a scheme to assassinate a politician on U.S. soil. Merchant was indicted in September.
Over the last few months, the complaint alleges, Shakeri used a network of criminals he met in prison to provide the Revolutionary Guard with operatives who would carry out surveillance and assassinations.
According to the complaint, Shakeri offered Loadholt and Rivera, two members of the network, $100,000 to surveil a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin, “Victim-1,” who was an outspoken critic of the Iranian government. Victim-1 is widely believed to be Masih Alinejad, a Brooklyn-based Iranian American journalist and critic of Iran’s treatment of women.
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For months, Shakeri and Rivera allegedly exchanged multiple voice notes. Shakeri told Rivera that the target spent most of her time in particular locations of her home, and told Rivera that “you just gotta have patience. … You gotta wait and have patience to catch her either going in the house or coming out, or following her out somewhere and taking care of it. Don’t think about going in. In is a suicide move.”
Shakeri also said he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American businessmen in New York City, with his Iranian contact offering him $500,000 for the murder of either victim. He was also asked to target Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka with a view to planning a mass shooting in October.
Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt have all been charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and money-laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Shakeri has also been charged with three additional crimes: conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Government of Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
According to the complaint, the Iranian government is actively assaulting, kidnapping and murdering nationals of the United States and its allies in a bid to silence dissidents critical of the government in Tehran.
Iranians also want to retaliate for the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020 that killed Qassem Suleimani, then-commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said.
“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,” Wray added. “Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, their deadly schemes were disrupted. We’re committed to using the full resources of the FBI to protect our citizens from Iran or any other adversary who targets Americans.”
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