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CV NEWSFEED // The Biden-Harris Department of Justice on Friday announced plans to charge a man involved in an alleged Iranian murder-for-hire plot against President-elect Donald Trump.
According to PBS News, the man hired for the plot, Afghan national Farhad Shakeri, was under investigation for being an Iranian government asset and had previously been deported following robbery charges in the U.S.
Shakeri told investigators that he “had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with assassinating the Republican president-elect.”
PBS added:
He told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan. Two other men who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations, including a prominent Iranian American journalist, were also arrested Friday. Shakeri remains in Iran.
The plans were discovered on Thursday following Trump’s election victory against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Attorney General Merrick Garland commented on the threat: “There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran.”
“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,” Garland stated, “including President-elect Donald Trump.”
The attorney general continued:
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. We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.
The alleged murder-for-hire plot by Iran follows two assassination attempts against Trump.
Shakeri was officially charged on Friday in a criminal complaint in New York alongside two other men, Carlisle Rivera (AKA Pop) and Jonathon Loadholt, in connection to the plot allegedly organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The conspirators were charged on six different accounts: Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, Provision of Material Support to a Designated Froeign Terrorist Organization, Murder-for-Hire, Conspiracy to Commit Murder-For-Hire, Money Laundering and Conspiracy to Violate the International Emergency Economic Powers act.
The statement released on Friday by the DOJ outlined assassination plans from the IRGC in Iran against President-elect Trump and Israeli citizens in the U.S.:
Shakeri has informed law enforcement that he was tasked on Oct. 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump. During the interview, Shakeri claimed he did not intend to propose a plan to kill Trump within the timeframe set by the IRGC. He also stated he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American citizens residing in New York City and offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either victim.
Biden-Harris FBI Director Christopher Wray also commented on the matter, stating:
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.
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. 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.
