US announces charges against Iran for allegedly conspiring against Trump

The Department of Justice claimed that the thwarted assassination plot against Trump was directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to avenge the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US attack on the orders of then-President Trump in 2020.

Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Afghan citizen believed to be in Iran, was “assigned” by the IRGC to provide a plan to kill Trump, the ministry said in a statement.

Shakeri and two other men, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both from New York, were separately charged with conspiring to kill an Iranian American dissident in New York.

Rivera and Loadholt are in US custody and appeared in court in New York on Thursday.

“The charges announced today reveal Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders, and dissidents critical of the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. he said.

Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s US presidential elections, faced two more assassination attempts this year; one of which was being shot at a campaign rally when a bullet hit him in the ear.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday called allegations that Tehran was behind a plot against Trump “completely unfounded.”

Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement that the state department “denies allegations that Iran was involved in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials.”

– ‘Network of accomplices’ –

The U.S. Department of Justice identified the suspect, Shakeri, as “an IRGC entity residing in Tehran.”

It was stated that he immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for robbery.

“In recent months, Shakeri used a network of accomplices he met in prison in the United States to provide the Revolutionary Guard with agents to conduct surveillance and assassinations of Revolutionary Guard targets,” the Justice Department said. he said.

It was stated that Loadholt and Rivera, under Shakeri’s instructions, spent months spying on a US citizen of Iranian origin who was an outspoken critic of the Iranian government and had previously been the target of several kidnapping and murder plots.

Although his identity is not stated in court documents, it appears to be dissident journalist Masih Alinejad.

A general from the Revolutionary Guard was indicted by US prosecutors in late October in connection with a separate assassination plot against New York-based Alinejad.

-‘Money is not a problem’-

In the criminal complaint against Shakeri, it was claimed that Shakeri disclosed the assassination plan to Trump in phone calls with FBI agents in recent months.

It was stated that Shakeri had meetings with FBI agents because he hoped to obtain a sentence reduction for a person imprisoned in the United States.

Shakeri told the FBI that an IRGC official approached him in September about organizing the Trump assassination.

He allegedly told the IRGC official it would cost a “huge” amount of money, to which the official responded: “Money is no problem.”

On October 7, Shakeri said he was asked to come up with a plan to kill Trump within seven days.

The Revolutionary Guard official allegedly said that if Shakeri could not produce a plan within this time, the Revolutionary Guard would try to kill Trump after the election, because he considered that he would lose and it would be easier to assassinate him after the vote.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of trying to assassinate US officials in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani. Tehran denied the accusations.

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty to charges earlier this year in New York that he tried to hire a hitman to kill a US politician or official.

The State Department also announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind who planned to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.