Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump: Farhad Shakeri charged

An Iranian operative who is on the run was asked to surveil and assassinate Donald Trump before the US election. Now two hitmen he recruited for another kill plot have been charged.

Iran’s armed forces directed an operative to surveil and assassinate Donald Trump, telling him that “money’s not an issue” as they raced to take out the former president before the US election.

In a stunning indictment unsealed three days after Mr Trump reclaimed power, the US Department of Justice alleged Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Corps ordered Farhad Shakeri to carry out the hit in September.

When Shakeri said the plan would cost a “huge” amount of money”, an IRGC official replied: “We have already spent a lot of money … Money’s not an issue.”

According to the indictment, Shakeri told the FBI that a month before the presidential election, he was then directed to provide a plan to kill Mr Trump within seven days.

The IRGC official said that if this could not be completed, Iran would “pause its plan” until after the election, believing that the Republican would lose to Vice President Kamala Harris and that “it would be easier to assassinate him” after the election.

Shakeri, 51, remains at large in Iran. Two men from New York – Afghani-Iranian national Carlisle “Pop” Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, who he had met while previously in jail in the US – were arrested and charged over another murder-for-hire plot against Brooklyn-based human rights activist Masih Alinejad, who had criticised Iran’s repression of women.

Shakeri met Rivera and Loadholt, later recruiting them to be hitmen.

The US Department of Justice alleged Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Corps ordered Farhad Shakeri to carry out the hit in September on Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

The Justice Department described Shakeri as an “IRGC asset residing in Tehran.” It said he immigrated to America as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for robbery. “In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States to supply the IRGC with operatives to conduct surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets,” the Justice Department said.

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target US citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticise the regime in Tehran,” FBI director Christopher Wray said.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organisation — has been conspiring with criminals and hit men to target and gun down Americans on US soil and that simply won’t be tolerated.”

A search warrant used to check their online cloud storage accounts found that the group had been sending over photos of their guns as they developed their plan. Several photos allegedly show Loadholt’s pistols, one of which was identified as a Smith & Wesson .380, a Taurus G2s 9mm firearm, a subcompact handgun designed for easy concealed carrying, a Smith & Wesson M&P pistol, a rifle with a scope, an assault rifle, and a 9mm pistol with the serial number scratched off.

Search warrants, contain stored images of firearms and knives, with creation dates between at least approximately July 2022 and August 2023, including a Taurus TCP firearm, which is an ultra-compact handgun designed for easy concealed carrying; a shotgun; and various assault rifles. Picture: US Dept of Justice

Iran offered Shakeri $US1.5 million to kill Alinejad and, in turn, he promised Rivera and Loadholt $100,000 to carry out the deed, the complaint states.

Image, depicting a firearm with an extended magazine, (a magazine that can hold more bullets, and what appears to be two additional magazines) was saved to the Loadholt Cloud Account with a file date of on or about July 23, 2024. Picture: US Dept of Justice

According to the indictment, Shakeri told the FBI that a month before the presidential election, he was then directed to provide a plan to kill Mr Trump within seven days. Picture: AFP

Ms Alinejad said she was “shocked” to learn she was the target of two New Yorkers hired by an Iranian agent who was also tasked by the Tehran regime to assassinate Mr Trump.

Attorney-General Merrick Garland said there were “few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran”.

“We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security,” he said.

During the campaign, Mr Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in July, while another assassination attempt while he was playing golf in September was narrowly averted. US intelligence agencies did not connect either of those plots to Iran.

The President-elect is now preparing to drastically increase sanctions on Iran and throttle its oil sales when he comes to power, in a bid to stop its attacks on Israel and weaken its nuclear program.

Former US President Donald Trump was rushed off stage by secret service after an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in July. Picture: David Maxwell

Brian Hook, who was in charge of Iran policy in the State Department during Mr Trump’s first term, told CNN he would “isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically so they can’t fund all of the violence” through proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday also described the kill plot accusations as “totally unfounded”.The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

It came as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said of Mr Trump’s return to power: “To us, it does not matter at all who has won the American election, because our country and system relies on its inner strength.”