Iran-Ordered Plot to Assassinate Trump Uncovered; Two New Yorkers Arrested, Bombshell Indictment Reveals

The Iranian government directed one of its agents to surveil and kill former President Donald Trump in September 2024, according to an indictment unsealed by Manhattan federal prosecutors on Friday. The indictment accuses Iranian national Farhad Shakeri, along with New Yorkers Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, of murder-for-hire and conspiracy.

The Iranian government instructed one of its agents to stalk and assassinate former President Donald Trump this past September, according to a bombshell indictment. AP

Prosecutors allege that an official from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ordered Shakeri to organize an assassination plot on Trump during the final stages of the 2024 election. When Shakeri raised concerns about costs, the IRGC official allegedly assured him that funding was not an issue.

According to the indictment, an unnamed official in Iran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps instructed Shakeri to “focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump” in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign. Department of Justice

According to court documents, Shakeri told an undercover FBI agent that on October 7 he was given a seven-day deadline to prepare the plot. If unmet, the IRGC allegedly planned to postpone the hit until after the election, anticipating Trump’s potential defeat. Shakeri reportedly did not intend to execute the assassination within the IRGC’s timeline.

The indictment charges Iranian Farhad Shakeri and two New Yorkers with murder for hire and conspiracy, reports say. Department of Justice

These charges follow Trump’s recent electoral victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt are also charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, money laundering, and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams condemned Iran’s alleged targeting of American citizens, stating, “We will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of bad actors.” The indictment claims Shakeri previously targeted journalist Masih Alinejad, as well as two Jewish businesspeople in New York, and was instructed to plan a mass shooting against Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

Shakeri, currently believed to be in Iran, remains out of reach of American authorities. Rivera and Loadholt were ordered detained pending trial.