US Prosecutors announced charges yesterday in an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump and a prominent Iranian-American journalist.
Trump had been targeted in the failed plan allegedly by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp and had been directed to do so over the death of one of its generals, killed in 2020 during the President-elect’s first term, according to the US justice department.
Iran has said the claims are totally “unfounded”.
Farhad Shakeri, 51, an Afghan national who is believed to be in Iran, was “tasked” by the IRGC with providing a plan to kill Trump, the department said in a statement.
Shakeri and two other men, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both of New York, were charged separately with plotting to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York during a court appearance on Thursday.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target US citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in this week’s US presidential election, faced two other separate assassination attempts this year, including a shooting at a campaign rally when a bullet grazed his ear.
Iran’s foreign ministry called the allegations that Tehran was behind a plot against Trump “totally unfounded”.
The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement.
