U.S. Department of Justice announces charges in alleged Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump, Tehran denies

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. Justice Department on Friday announced federal charges in what is described as a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election, CNN reported citing court documents.

According to court documents, Iranian officials asked Farhad Shakeri, 51, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran, CNN reported citing the Justice Department.

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.

Two other individuals charged on Friday, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan 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.

Iran has “categorically dismissed” the Justice Department’s allegation.

The Foreign Ministry, posting on social media platform X on Saturday, described the claims as “completely baseless and rejected,” adding that “similar accusations have been made in the past,” which Iran has “firmly denied and proven false.” The claims amount to a “malicious conspiracy” aimed at “further complicating the issues between the US and Iran,” the ministry said.