IRGC operative charged in plot to assassinate Trump, Jewish targets in US

Farhad Shakeri, one of three Americans charged with the attempted assassination of president-elect Donald Trump, was also surveilling two Jewish American citizens and claimed an IRGC official offered him $500,000 for the murder of either victim, the Department of Justice announced Monday morning.

According to the DOJ, He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, which Israel’s National Security Council has issued travel warnings against since late October.

While Shakeri is currently at large, the two other suspects named by the DOJ – Carlisle Rivera of Brooklyn and Jonathon Loadholt of Staten Island – have both been detained and are currently awaiting trial.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. 

“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. We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime. We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”

The Jewish victims

Although the identities of the two Jewish Americans Shakeri was surveilling have been kept hidden, the official indictment describes them as “Jewish businesspeople residing in New York City.”

Shakeri told the DOJ that the IRGC provided him with pictures of the victims, presumably from social media, which indicated their support for Israel.

Additionally, on October 7, 2024, the IRGC tasked Shakeri with providing a plan to assassinate president-elect Trump, though he claimed he did not intend to follow through with proposing a plan “within the timeframe set by the IRGC.”

Overall, the three have been charged with six different crimes, including murder for hire and money laundering.

With his additional charges of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Shakeri could live the rest of his life in prison.