The United States has charged an Iranian man connected to an alleged plot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, according to a statement from the Justice Department on Friday.
The department disclosed that Farhad Shakeri claimed he was instructed on October 7, 2024, to devise a plan to kill Trump, although he allegedly told authorities he had no intention of fulfilling the IRGC’s timeline. The department described Shakeri, 51, as an IRGC asset based in Tehran, who immigrated to the US as a child and was deported in 2008 after a robbery conviction. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.
Additionally, two New York residents, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt—former prison acquaintances of Shakeri—are charged with aiding in an alleged plot to kill a US citizen of Iranian origin in New York, a critic of the Iranian government. Though not named, the description aligns with journalist Masih Alinejad, a vocal opponent of Iran’s head-covering laws for women.
