The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran was working through agents to kill an American journalist and plot an assassination of President-elect Donald Trump, the Department of Justice alleged in a complaint shared Friday.
According to the DOJ, Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt were all involved in a series of murder-for-hire plots on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Shakeri was allegedly approached by the IRGC in October and asked to plot an assassination of Trump.
Rivera and Loadholt have both been arrested. The pair appeared in court on Friday over charges related to the journalist assassination plot. The journalist in question was not named in the criminal complaint but appears to be Masih Alinejad, a critic of the current Iranian regime. She shared her reaction to the arrest of Rivera and Loadholt on X.
"I am shocked. I just learned from the [FBI] that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk."
Shakeri is still at large and believed to be in Iran.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement announcing the charges. “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."
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt in July and another apparent attempt in September. Trump blamed Iran for those attempts. The new charges center around an alleged plot headed by Shakeri that was hatched after the two attempts on Trump's life.
Tensions between Trump and Iran nearly escalated into war during his first term when he ordered the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
The president-elect previously fantasized about revenge against the state over the assassination plot, writing in July he “hope[s] that America obliterates Iran” in the event of his death.
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