The U.S. government has charged an Iranian individual in relation to an alleged scheme orchestrated by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, according to a statement from the Justice Department on Friday.
The department noted that Farhad Shakeri communicated to law enforcement that he was given the task on October 7, 2024, to devise a plan to kill Trump. However, Shakeri reportedly indicated that he had no intention of creating such a plan within the timeline set by the IRGC.
Shakeri, 51, is described by the department as an asset of the IRGC living in Tehran. He migrated to the U.S. as a child but was deported around 2008 following a robbery conviction. Prosecutors believe he is currently at large in Iran.
In a related case, two residents of New York, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who met Shakeri while incarcerated, have also been charged for assisting him in planning the assassination of a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent in New York. This individual is known to be a vocal critic of the Iranian regime and has previously faced assassination attempts.
While prosecutors did not disclose the identity of the intended target, it aligns with descriptions of Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist opposed to Iran’s laws concerning women’s head coverings. Four Iranians were charged in 2021 for a plot to kidnap her, and in 2022, a man was apprehended with a firearm outside her residence.
Both Rivera and Loadholt are currently detained pending trial, and their attorneys have yet to respond to requests for comments.
