Iranian operatives sought to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s presidential election, prioritizing the plot over other planned attacks against regime critics, according to federal court documents unsealed Friday.
The revelations emerged from conversations between FBI agents and Farhad Shakeri, 51, the alleged ringleader of an unrelated murder-for-hire scheme. Speaking from Tehran, Shakeri told agents that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official approached him in September, directing him to abandon a planned assassination of an Iranian dissident journalist in New York to focus on targeting Trump.
“We have already spent a lot of money… money’s not an issue,” the IRGC official told Shakeri when he raised concerns about costs, according to the documents. The official demanded a plan within seven days, indicating they would wait until after the election if the timeline proved impossible, believing Trump would lose and become an easier target.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
The plot marks Iran’s latest attempt to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed IRGC Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani. In August, authorities charged Pakistani national Asif Merchant for allegedly seeking hitmen to kill Trump on Iran’s behalf.
Court documents describe Shakeri as an Afghan national deported from the U.S. in 2008 after serving 14 years for robbery. During his imprisonment, he allegedly built a criminal network later used to execute Iranian directives. Prosecutors say he worked with associate Carlisle Rivera, 49, who enlisted Jonathan Loadholt, 36, to kill Voice of America Persian Service journalist Masih Alinejad for $100,000.
Rivera and Loadholt were arrested Thursday. All three face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering, carrying maximum sentences of 10 to 20 years. Shakeri faces additional charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Alinejad, described in court documents as “an Iranian American journalist, author, and political activist, and an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime,” expressed shock at being connected to the presidential assassination plot. “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter, thanking law enforcement for protection.
The Iranian mission at the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment. The court documents do not specify whether Shakeri’s FBI conversations were authorized by Iranian authorities.
Last month, U.S. prosecutors charged a senior IRGC official for a separate 2022 attempted assassination of Alinejad, highlighting Iran’s persistent use of criminal networks to target critics and officials on American soil.
