DOJ charges three in Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump, holds a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum on November 2, 2024 in Greensboro, North Carolina
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, who is an Afghan national residing in Tehran, 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.