The Washington Post: Men charged in foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump

Three men have been charged in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to kill people in the United States that included an apparent effort to assassinate Donald Trump while he campaigned for a second term in office, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in the Southern District of New York.

The complaint is based on a sworn account by an FBI agent that includes details from what are described as voluntary phone interviews with Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national and alleged operative for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

While the most concrete aspects of the plot involved efforts to stalk and kill an Iranian dissident and target others, Shakeri - who is one of the three men charged - also allegedly told investigators he was assigned in September to try to find a way to surveil and kill Trump.

On Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas massacre of Israelis last year in southern Israel, Shakeri was given a deadline to devise an assassination plan, the filing says. He told investigators that his Revolutionary Guard contacts paused the effort to try to kill Trump when Shakeri failed to come up with a solid plan of action. Shakeri said his handlers believed Trump would lose the election and that it would be easier to go after him once he had been defeated, according to the filing.

“President-Elect Trump is aware of the attempted assassination plot by the Iranian terrorist regime,” said Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump. “Nothing will deter President Trump from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”

Shakeri’s co-defendants, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, both New York City residents, are being held without bail after appearing before a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday.

They were allegedly paid by Iran to pursue the Iranian dissident, an effort that involved stalking her at her home and a speaking event at Fairfield University, the criminal complaint says.

Shakeri is believed to be in Iran and remains at large.

A press official at the Iranian U.N. mission in New York declined to comment on the case.

Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian defector and journalist, identified herself on X as one of the victims cited in the indictment. Alinejad, who lives in Brooklyn, has been targeted for assassination by Iran multiple times on U.S. soil, according to investigators. Others have been previously charged in connection with those efforts.

Justice Department officials said Iran has been engaged in a widespread effort to get even for the January 2020 death of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the leader of an elite Revolutionary Guard force who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. The targets were said to include Americans and U.S. allies.

Shakeri developed a network of criminal associates in the United States while serving a 14-year prison term here for robbery, according to the complaint, and investigators said he tapped into that group to assist Iran.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Shakeri “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 J. Trump,” he said.

The complaint does not say that Rivera and Loadholt were part of the alleged effort to kill Trump; nor does it say that plot ever developed into a firm plan. Their attorneys did not reply to requests for comment.

Shakeri told the FBI he did not intend to formulate a scheme to carry out an assassination, the criminal complaint says.

He claimed that an Iranian official had told him that “we have already spent a lot of money … [s]o the money’s not an issue,” the complaint says.

Based on that, Shakeri allegedly told investigators that he believed there were previous efforts by the Iranian government to target the president-elect before Tuesday’s election, and that resources had already been devoted to trying to execute the strategy.

A pair of Jewish American businesspeople residing in New York, who showed support for Israel, and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka were also targeted for killing, according to Shakeri.

Shakeri told investigators he was offered $500,000 each to kill the Americans but did not do so. He claimed his Iranian government contact also asked him to commit a mass shooting targeting Israeli tourists in October in Sri Lanka, according to the complaint. That effort was ultimately thwarted after a travel warning by the United States and Israel, U.S. officials said; an associate of Shakeri was arrested by Sri Lankan authorities.

Investigators noted in the court filing that some elements of Shakeri’s narratives were false, or that he omitted or lied about certain details. He was motivated to cooperate because he wanted to try to help free someone who is imprisoned in the United States, officials said.

Trump’s safety became a major concern in the final months of his campaign, after a July 14 attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which his ear was grazed by a bullet. The gunman, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was killed at the scene. The shooting prompted major concerns about the Secret Service’s ability to effectively protect Trump, and other candidates and officials.

Separately, a man taken into custody outside Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course in mid-September is charged with attempting to assassinate Trump.

Neither incident is believed to be connected to the Iranians’ indictment. But the campaign was briefed this summer on what officials believed to be an active plot by Iranians to assassinate him, further heightening safety concerns among Trump and his aides, and increasing tension between their team and the Secret Service even as his precautions and levels of protection increased.

The Washington Post reported last month that after campaign advisers were told of Iran’s alleged efforts, his campaign requested military aircraft for his travel, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, and other security measures that would have been unprecedented for former presidents or political candidates.

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