A TV news report saying two Jewish Americans and an Iranian activist were also targets in an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate then presidential candidate Donald Trump has been shared online with false captions saying instead that two Jewish Americans were charged in the conspiracy.
The United States on Nov. 8 charged an Iranian man linked to an alleged plot to assassinate President-elect Trump ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. The Department of Justice detailed the charges in a
that included the unsealed
criminal complaint, opens new tab
.
A Nov. 9
said: “That ‘Iranian assassination plot’ was orchestrated by two Jewish Americans. Again, Israel wants war with Iran but wants American money to fund it and American servicemen to fight it.”
However, the post contained a screenshot of an
on the website of local ABC News affiliate ABC7 Eyewitness News about the charges, which said two Jewish Americans were among the targets of the plot, not that they were part of it.
The Eyewitness News story said three people in total were charged for plotting to kill “President-elect Donald Trump, an Iranian-American activist and two Jewish Americans living in New York.”
The DOJ statement said two New York residents were arrested for allegedly helping the Iranian man, Farhad Shakeri, plot to kill a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin. It did not specify whether they were Jewish.
The statement added that Shakeri told law enforcement agents he was also offered money to murder two Jewish Americans.
“He also stated he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American citizens residing in New York City and offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either victim,” according to the DOJ release, which cited statements made by Shakeri to law enforcement.
The criminal complaint referred to the Jewish American citizens as “Victim-2 and Victim-3” (
).
VERDICT
False. An ABC7 report did not say Jewish Americans were behind an alleged Iranian-linked murder-for-hire plot, but rather that two Jewish Americans were among the plot’s targets.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
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