WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill , charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week's election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
Investigators were told of the plan to kill Trump by Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.
Shakeri told the FBI that a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that 鈥淲e have already spent a lot of money" and that 鈥渕oney鈥檚 not an issue.鈥� Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.
Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill , who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.
鈥淚鈥檓 very shocked,鈥� said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. 鈥淭his is the third attempt against me and that鈥檚 shocking.鈥�
In a post on the social media platform X, she said: "I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech 鈥� I don鈥檛 want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the U.S. government to protect the national security of America."
Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
In Tehran, Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, rejected the report and called it a plot by Israel-linked circles to make Iran-U.S. relation more complicated, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Similar accusations in the past were rejected by Iran as their 鈥渆rroneousness鈥� were proved, he said.
鈥淩epeat of the accusation in the current time span is a disgusting plot by the Zionist and anti-Iran circles that has aimed at making US-Iran problems more complicated," Baghaei said.
Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the U.S. as a child but later was deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.
The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the U.S.
According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran's willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.
The plot, announced by the Justice Department just days after Trump's defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, is part of what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil. Last summer, for instance, in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.
鈥淭here are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,鈥� Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran's 鈥渃ontinued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens,鈥� including Trump, 鈥渙ther government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.鈥�
Iranian operatives also of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election and harm Trump's campaign.
Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump鈥檚 reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump鈥檚 administration , reimposed sanctions and ordered the , an act that prompted Iran鈥檚 leaders to .
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him 鈥渇rom returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.鈥�
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Neumeister reported from New York. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.
Eric Tucker And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
