The U.S. government has charged an Iranian man with allegedly conspiring to assassinate Donald Trump before he is elected president.
The Justice Department on Friday unveiled an indictment against 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri, accusing him of being tasked with “providing a plan to assassinate Trump.”
The US government said Mr Shaqri had not been arrested and was believed to be in Iran.
In a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan court, prosecutors said an official with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards directed Shaqri in September to develop a plan to spy on and kill Trump.
“The Department of Justice has charged an Iranian regime asset whose mission was to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plot against its targets,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. That includes President-elect Donald Trump.
The Justice Department added that it had charged two others who were also allegedly recruited to kill an American journalist who was an outspoken critic of Iran.
The other two people identified by the judicial department are 49-year-old Carlisle Rivera (also known as “Pop”) and 36-year-old Jonathon Loadholt of Brooklyn. From Staten Island.
According to prosecutors, Shaqri told them he did not intend to come up with a plan to kill Trump within the timeframe desired by the Iranian government, so Republican Guard officials suspended the plan.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Shakri was asked to come up with a plan to kill Trump within seven days. Prosecutors said Thackeray said if he couldn’t do that, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials told him it would be easier to try to assassinate Trump after the election because they believed he would fail.
