WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, 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 learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a web of criminal associates who participate in Tehran's assassination plots.
Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to 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 quoting 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 who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations, including of a prominent Iranian American journalist who has been targeted in murder-for-hire plots, were arrested Friday.
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.
The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump's defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target U.S. government officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil. Last summer, in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.
of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.
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.
Eric Tucker And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
