A new assassination attempt against Donald Trump foiled? The American judicial authorities announced, this Friday, November 8, the indictment of an “agent of Iran”, accused of having received the order from Tehran – which denies – to organize assassination plans in the States -United… One of which targets in particular the one who will become President of the United States again next January.
Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Afghan who is now in Iran after serving 14 years in prison in the United States for robbery, is accused of recruiting common criminals for the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, according to court documents. “Few actors in the world represent as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” Justice Minister Merrick Garland said in a statement from his office. “This agent of the Iranian regime was tasked by the regime with leading a network of criminal accomplices to carry out Iran’s assassination plans against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” he said. added.
Made public three days after the presidential election won by the Republican billionaire, these accusations were rejected by Iranian diplomacy. She described this Saturday as “totally unfounded […] allegations that Iran is involved in an assassination attempt targeting former or current U.S. officials.”
“Money is not a problem”
The conclusions of the American justice system are based on telephone conversations between agents of the American federal police (FBI) and Farhad Shakeri, who would thus like to obtain a reduced sentence for another person incarcerated in the United States, according to the prosecution.
During these interviews, which took place between September 30 and this Thursday, he notably claimed to have received instructions in September from a senior official of the Revolutionary Guards to “concentrate on surveillance and ultimately “assassination of former President Donald Trump”, according to these documents.
This official allegedly asked him on October 7 to present an assassination plan to him within seven days, explaining that beyond this deadline, the project would be postponed until after the November 5 election, considering that Donald Trump would lose it. and that it would therefore be easier to target him afterwards, according to the same sources. Farhad Shakeri also reportedly stressed to the Revolutionary Guards that such a plan would cost an “enormous” amount of money. “We have already spent a lot of money,” he was reportedly told in Tehran, insisting that “money is not a problem.”
Kidnapping and assassination plans
The Islamic Republic has for years harbored a desire to retaliate for the death of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, killed on January 3, 2020 in Iraq in a drone strike ordered by Donald Trump during his first term, recalls the Ministry of Defense. Justice. Without forgetting the heavy economic sanctions then imposed by the newly elected president, or his withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, which ultimately undermined relations between the American administration and the Mullahs’ regime. During the presidential campaign, Tehran notably orchestrated a computer hack of the Republican candidate’s teams.
Still in this attempted assassination case, two Americans were also arrested this Thursday. Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both residents of New York City, were indicted for planning the assassination of an American journalist of Iranian origin who was particularly critical of the Islamic Republic.
The latter, identified as “victim number 1”, is not named by name but described as having already been the target of assassination or kidnapping attempts sponsored by Tehran, which corresponds to the Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad. Court documents outline plans to monitor “victim number 1” during a conference scheduled for February 15, 2024 at the University of Fairfield, Connecticut.
In a video posted Friday on social networks, Masih Alinejad confirms that it is her and that she was one of the speakers at this conference, which was ultimately canceled. She specifies that she was informed on February 15 by FBI agents of an “imminent threat” targeting her. According to the complaint, Farhad Shakeri allegedly promised $100,000 to the two men for the assassination of the activist.
In October, American justice had already initiated proceedings against four Iranians, including a general of the Revolutionary Guards, for having sponsored a plan to assassinate Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022. A man was arrested in front of his home with a loaded AK-47 type assault rifle. And in 2021, four Iranians were indicted for preparing an attempted kidnapping of the American journalist to send her back to Iran. “My activism seems to offend them to such a level that they tried to get rid of me for the third time. This shows their determination to kill an American citizen on American soil,” insisted the Iranian-American dissident.