The Justice Department has announced that it has foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the election. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City, an unnamed official in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had tasked Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, with surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump.
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, "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 Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran, with directing a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against various targets, including President-elect Trump.
The complaint also revealed that Shakeri was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American citizens in New York City and targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Additionally, two individuals, Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, were arrested in connection with a plot to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York.
All three suspects are facing charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering conspiracy, which carry maximum penalties of 10 to 20 years in prison. Shakeri has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and violating sanctions against the Government of Iran, which each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The Justice Department emphasized that it will not tolerate Iran's attempts to endanger the American people and national security. The investigation into this plot is ongoing, and authorities are working to bring all those involved to justice.