Men charged in foiled Iranian plot to assassinate Trump

Washington: The US government has charged three men linked to a foiled plot by the Iranian regime to kill president-elect Donald Trump, highlighting yet another attempt on the Republican’s life.

Days after Trump’s resounding victory against Kamala Harris, the federal Justice Department has accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps of asking Afghan national Farhad Shakeri to surveil and ultimately assassinate Trump – if possible, before the election.

The assassination plot comes only two months after Donald Trump was shot in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania.Credit: AP

If the assassination could not be carried out within that timeframe, the department alleges, the Revolutionary Guard would wait until after the election as it believed Trump would lose to Harris. This would have resulted in him having fewer Secret Service protections.

According to the indictment, Shakeri told Iranian officials that surveilling and ultimately killing Trump would cost a “huge” amount of money. In response, an official said: “We have already spent a lot of money ... [s]o the money’s not an issue.”

Extraordinary details of the plot were unveiled for the first time in an indictment that was unsealed on Friday (Saturday AEDT).

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

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland.Credit: Getty Images

“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, including president-elect Donald Trump … We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”

The US government has repeatedly warned that Iran may try to retaliate for a 2020 drone strike ordered during Trump’s first administration that killed then-commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani.

Trump has previously been briefed by intelligence officials about the potential threat to his life and said in September that if he were president and another country threatened a US presidential candidate, it would risk being “blown to smithereens”.

“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know,” he said at an event in North Carolina.

In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, a food cart vendor passes a billboard showing assassinated leaders including Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh, General Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.Credit: Getty Images, digitally tinted

Iran has previously denied wanting to kill Trump, or that it is targeting US citizens.

However, according to court documents, prosecutors allege that Shakeri – who took part in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally asked by the Revolutionary Guard to carry out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens in the US.

This changed on October 7, when they told him to focus only on Trump, giving him seven days to formulate an assassination plan. Shakeri told investigators that if he could not come up with a plan within a week, they would wait until after the election.

Had the alleged assassination attempt been carried out before this week’s historic election, it would have been the third attempt on Trump’s life in almost as many months.

The 78-year-old was almost killed at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July when a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, grazing Trump’s right ear.

In September, another man was arrested after the Secret Service spotted him with a rifle outside the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach.

Shakeri, who is believed to be at large in Tehran, was charged with “murder for hire”, alongside two other men he met while serving time in a US prison for robbery: New York residents Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36.

The two American citizens were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government surveil a separate US citizen of Iranian origin, known only in the indictment as Victim 1. This is believed to be Irainian-American activist Masin Alinejad.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – a designated foreign terrorist organisation – has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on US soil and that simply won’t be tolerated,” said FBI director Christopher Wray.

Murder-for-hire comes with a maximum jail term of 10 years. Shakeri has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the government of Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

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