“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 U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. He made the declaration in a Justice Department statement announcing criminal charges against a man believed to be currently living in Iran and two U.S. accomplices for a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. citizens, including President-Elect Donald Trump.
The Justice Department said that Farhad Shakeri of Iran is an asset of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He came to the United States as a child but was deported after serving 14 years in prison for robbery. “Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States, to conduct surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets,” wrote the Justice Department. Two members of his network are his co-defendants, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt.
Among the targets for assassination in Shakeri’s plot is a journalist and outspoken critic of the Iranian regime, known as Victim-1 in the indictment by the Justice Department. Victim-1 has since identified herself as Iranian-born, U.S citizen Masih Alinejad, who has been the subject of multiple assassination attempts by Iranian authorities. Two Jewish American citizens residing in New York City and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka were also targets.
Farhad Shakeri told law enforcement agents that on October 7, 2024, the IRGC directed him to provide a plan to kill then former President Donald Trump within a week. If he were not able to do so in the timeframe, the IRGC official told Shakeri to kill Mr. Trump after the election, because the official assessed Mr. Trump would lose, and it would be easier to assassinate him.
The Justice Department noted that the Government of Iran is actively targeting nationals of the United States and its allies “both to repress and silence dissidents critical of the Iranian regime and to take vengeance for the January 2020 death of then Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force [IRGC-QF] Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.”
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Wray said, “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. Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, their deadly schemes were disrupted.”
