The U.S. Justice Department on Friday filed criminal charges against an Iranian citizen allegedly assigned to build a team to attempt to assassinate then presidential candidate and now President-elect Donald Trump, as well as others.
Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, remains at large and is believed to be in Tehran.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “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.”
Also charged were Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York. Rivera and Loadholt, who are in custody, are charged in connection to an attempt to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York, the Justice Department says.
“We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime,” Garland said. “We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
According to the criminal complaint, Shakeri was ordered by an unnamed member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to build a team to plot to kill Trump.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – a designated foreign terrorist organization – has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated.”
