FBI foils Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump
AnIranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump was thwarted by the FBI.
"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," saidAttorney General Merrick B. Garland in a news release.
A federal criminal complaint filed in Manhattan forFarhad Shakeri was unsealed Friday. It alleges that an unnamed official in Iran's Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed Shakeri to put together a plan to kill Trump.
Shakeri told law enforcement agents in an interview that he informed the official it would take a "huge amount of money" to come up with amurder-for-hire plan.Shakeri then alleged that money wasn't an issue with the group and it appeared they had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to plot an assassination on Trump.
The unnamed official then allegedly instructedShakeri on October 7 to come up with a plan within seven days to kill the then-GOP presidential candidate.
Shakeri statement to investigators alleged that the official told him to pause the plot to kill Trump if it couldn't be done within the timeframe. The complaint stated that the plan to assassinate Trump would resume after the U.S. presidential election because he would lose the election and it would be easier to kill him afterward.
Shakeri told the FBI he didn't plan to propose a plan to murder Trump within the seven days that was set by the official, according to the complaint.
The plot to kill Trump and the charged unsealed come days after Trump won the election.
Federal officials have been that there are efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials and Trump on American soil.
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," added Garland.
Two other individualswho were allegedly recruited as part of that network to silence and kill on U.S. soil were also charged. Those included suspects who were targeting an who has been a prominent critic of the regime.
"We will not stand for the Iranian regime's attempts to endanger the American people and America's national security," said Garland.
