US charges man allegedly hired by Iran to plot Trump’s killing before election | Donald Trump news

The Justice Department alleges an Iranian citizen was tapped to hatch a plan to assassinate the former president, although he never carried it out.

The US Justice Department has dropped criminal charges against a man it said was hired by Iran to “surveil and plan an assassination attempt” on Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election.

The criminal complaint filed Friday in Manhattan federal court said an Iranian Revolutionary Guard agent ordered an Afghan national, Farhad Shakeri, to hatch the plan in October.

However, Shakeri told investigators that he did not intend to submit a plan within the required timeline: before the Nov. 5 election.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department had “charged an Iranian regime operative who was hired by the regime to lead a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination attempts against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.” “ “.

He added: “There are few actors in the world that pose as great a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran.”

Iran did not immediately respond to the claim, but has rejected similar claims in the past and denied it wanted to kill Trump.

Former immigrant, deported

The alleged assassination attempt was uncovered as part of a broader complaint alleging that Shakeri and New Yorkers Carlisel Rivera and Jonathon Lodholt took part in a separate plot to kill a U.S. journalist who was a vocal critic of Iran.

The complaint said Rivera and Lodholt monitored the journalist, who was not identified, for months and shared regular updates with Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran.

According to the Justice Department, Shakeri immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction.

“In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States to supply the IRGC with agents to carry out the surveillance and assassination of IRGC targets,” a press release said of the Ministry of Justice.

Shakeri also told investigators that he was separately offered $500,000 to monitor and ultimately kill two “Jewish American citizens residing in New York.”

The three men were accused of contract murder and money laundering. Shakeri was also charged with providing and conspiring to provide “material support to a foreign terrorist organization.”

The US says Iran is motivated by revenge

The FBI said threats against Trump increased after the July 13 assassination attempt on the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, although that attack was not believed to be linked to foreign actors.

A second assassination attempt against Trump in September was also not suspected to be linked to foreign governments.

Still, the Justice Department said in August that a Pakistani man had been charged with allegedly conspiring to carry out political assassinations in the United States.

The arrested man, Asif Merchant, allegedly had ties to Iran, although court documents did not indicate who he was targeting.

In September, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had been informed by US intelligence about “major threats” to his life from Iranian agents.

His campaign manager said at the time that the intelligence community had warned Trump “of real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in order to destabilize the United States and sow chaos.”

In its statement Friday, the Justice Department reiterated claims that Iran is “actively targeting nationals of the United States and its allies living in countries around the world for attacks, including assault, kidnapping and murder.”

It has been alleged that Iran did this both to silence dissent and to exact revenge for the US drone killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.

Trump was president when this strike was ordered.