Justice Department unseals alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump

The Justice Department on Friday revealed an alleged Iranian plot to kill President-elect Trump during his campaign this fall.

A newly unsealed criminal complaint reveals that Farhad Shakeri, 51, who is charged with murder-for-hire, allegedly told FBI agents an Iranian official tasked him in September with assassinating Trump.

Shakeri previously plotted with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill other U.S. citizens but was told by the official to put aside those efforts to focus on the former president, according to the complaint.

“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 Wray said in a statement. “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.”

Trump experienced two attempts on his life during his presidential campaign. In July, he was shot in the ear by a gunman at a Butler, Pa., rally, and another individual months later showed up on the edge of Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course with a firearm.

No evidence has come to light to suggest either individual was part of a broader conspiracy, but federal officials have warned Trump that Iran is attempting to assassinate him.

“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.

Friday’s complaint offers the most details yet about the Iranian effort to assassinate Trump after news of their plot was reported over the summer. Trump was briefed by intelligence agencies about the matter in September, but the public thus far had few details of how the country planned to carry out an attack.

Still, the filing suggests a haphazard pivot to push two hired assassins to kill Trump, shifting from plans to murder an Iranian-American journalist and political activist.

“Rather than solely engaging in lethal operations themselves, Iranian intelligence services have outsourced certain assassination plots to organized crime groups and violent criminals,” the Justice Department wrote in the indictment.

Shakeri and two other individuals — Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36 — face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy.

Rivera and Loadholt are not accused in the alleged Trump plot and instead were allegedly involved in a separate Iranian plot to kill the Iranian-American journalist by seeking to locate them in exchange for $100,000 from Shakeri.

The Justice Department unsealed more information about that case in October, charging additional figures in a plot by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to assassinate the journalist critical of the country’s leadership.

The complaint also alleges the Iranian official told Shakeri “the money’s not an issue” in attempting to assassinate Trump. If Shakeri was unable to propose a plan, he allegedly told the FBI Iran was planning to wait until after the election when “it would be easier” to kill Trump under an assumption he would lose the election.

Both Rivera and Loadholt are residents of New York City and are being detained, while prosecutors said Shakeri remains at large and is believed to live in Iran.

The unsealed complaint also claims the Iranian official tasked Shakeri with surveilling two Jewish Americans in New York City and offered $500,000 for murdering either victim. Shakeri also allegedly told authorities he was tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

This story was updated at 1:38 p.m.