DOJ charges three in Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — The Justice Department on Friday announced federal charges against three people in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election.
According to court documents, Iranian officials asked one of the men charged, Farhad Shakeri, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran, the Justice Department said.
This is a newly disclosed plot and marks yet another alleged attempt on Trump's life by the Iranian regime.
Prosecutors allege Shakeri – who participated in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally tasked by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to carrying out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens inside the US. But IRGC officials told Shakeri on October 7 to focus only on Trump, court documents say, and that he had seven days to formulate an assassination plan
Shakeri told investigators that if he was unable to do come up with a plan in that timeframe, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election to move forward as they believed Trump would lose.
The two other individuals charged, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, who are American citizens, were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government surveil a separate US citizen of Iranian origin. They made their initial appearance in court on Thursday, the Justice Department said, and are being detained pending trial.
In statements, both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray denounced the continued threats from the Iranian government against individuals in the United States.
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," Garland said. "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."
The US government has repeatedly raised concerns that Iran may try to retaliate for a 2020 US drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani , a top general in the IRGC, by trying to kill Trump, who ordered the strike, or his former advisers.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
