US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump

The US Justice Department on Friday announced charges against a man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.

The department said that Farhad Shakeri had informed law enforcement “that he was tasked on October 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill” Trump.

According to the criminal complaint released by the department, Shakeri was an Afghan immigrant to the United States and first arrived in the country as a child. He was later deported in 2008 after serving a 14-year prison sentence for a robbery conviction.

The complaint alleges that Shakeri used a network of operatives and worked on behalf of the IRGC to try and carry out an assassination of Trump, as well as a plot to kill an Iranian journalist in the US who is critical of the current government.

The charges Shakeri faces are money laundering, conspiracy to provide material support for a terrorist group, and murder-for-hire. Shakeri is currently residing in Tehran, according to the criminal complaint.

“The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The Justice Department said it had charged two other individuals in connection with the alleged plot.

The criminal complaint comes months after news reports were published in July stating that US intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against Trump.

The New York Times and CNN both reported on the possible Iranian threat and said information about the plot was relayed to the Trump campaign before Saturday’s shooting.

A White House official told The New York Times in July that many of the threats against members of the previous Trump administration stem from Trump’s targeted assassination in 2020 of top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.

The first Trump administration took a hawkish approach to its Iran policy, exiting the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposing wide-ranging sanctions on the country.

In addition to killing Soleimani, the Trump administration also labelled the IRGC a terrorist organisation.

The US has accused Iran of plotting to kill several of Trump’s top officials since they left office. In 2022, the US Justice Department said that a member of the IRGC offered someone $300,000 to kill former national security advisor John Bolton.

At the time, a source close to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Axios that Pompeo was told he was also a target of that same plot, and the IRGC member offered a $1m prize for the official’s death.