Justice Department Brings Criminal Charges in Iranian Murder-for-Hire Plan Targeting Trump

Investigators said the plot reflects an ongoing effort by Iran to target American government officials.

AP/Evan Vucci
President Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service after the first attempted assassination. AP/Evan Vucci

The Justice Department Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill President Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this weekā€™s election with assassinating him.

Investigators learned of the plot to kill Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national identified by officials as an Iranian government asset who was deported from America after being imprisoned on robbery charges.

He told investigators that a contact in Iranā€™s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan. Two other men who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations, including a prominent Iranian American journalist, were also arrested Friday. Shakeri remains in Iran.

ā€œThere are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,ā€ Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trumpā€™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, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot.

Associated Press


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