The plot reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil.
Criminal charges in a foiled Iranian attempt to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump prior to this week’s presidential election were unveiled by the Justice Department on Friday.
An unidentified official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) allegedly gave contact instructions this past September to spy on and kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint submitted to a federal court in Manhattan. According to the accusation, the person was assigned to devise a plan to assassinate Trump in October.
According to the lawsuit, if the guy, Farjad Shakeri, couldn’t come up with a strategy by then, the official informed him Iran would put the plan on hold until after the presidential election since he thought Trump would lose and it would be simpler to kill him then.
Two additional males were also detained and accused, the complaint claims, for allegedly participating in a “plot to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York.”
According to a statement from Attorney General Merrick Garland, we have also prosecuted and detained two people who we believe were enlisted as part of that network to silence and murder an American journalist who has been a vocal opponent of the regime on American soil.
According to the criminal complaint, the two men are allegedly members of a network of criminal acquaintances that Shakeri established in order to allegedly provide the IRGC with agents to carry out surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets.
Days after Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris, the accusations were unveiled, revealing a plot that echoes what federal officials have called Iran’s persistent attempts to target Trump and other U.S. government officials on American soil.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in the release that the charges revealed today reveal Iran’s persistent blatant efforts to target American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government officials, and dissidents who oppose the Tehran dictatorship.
The Iranian regime is allegedly aggressively targeting American citizens and its allies who reside in other nations for “attacks, including assault, kidnapping, and murder,” according to the complaint. It claims that this is done to exact revenge for the U.S. bombing that killed Iranian senior general Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 and to suppress and quiet dissidents who are critical of the Iranian leadership.
The two individuals arrested and Shakeri, who has not been apprehended or located, are charged with money laundering conspiracy, murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to conduct murder-for-hire. Shakeri is also charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiracy to give material support to a foreign terrorist group, and conspiracy to violate sanctions against the Iranian government.