The Department of Justice announced on Friday that three individuals have been charged with being commissioned by Iran to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump and others before Election Day. This announcement comes months after Trump, who has been the target of two unrelated assassination attempts, claimed that threats against his life were emanating from Iran.
Farhad Shakeri, 51, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering conspiracy, according to the DOJ.
Rivera and Loadholt, residents of Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York, respectively, have been apprehended, while Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran, as per the agency’s report.
In discussions with law enforcement, Shakeri allegedly admitted to being assigned the task of surveilling and assassinating targets for Iran’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and enlisted Rivera and Loadholt to assist in surveillance activities.
In September, Iranian officials directed Shakeri to concentrate on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump, stating that Iran had already expended significant funds for this purpose, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.
The IRGC subsequently instructed Shakeri to devise a plan to assassinate Trump in October, although Shakeri informed the FBI that he did not intend to follow through.
Shakeri also disclosed that he was offered $500,000 by the IRGC to surveil and assassinate two Jewish-American citizens in New York City and was additionally tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.