FBI thwarts Iranian plot to assassinate Trump; 2 held, 3 charged

The Federal Bureau of Investigations thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump, the Department of Justice said on Friday as it charged an Iranian national and arrested two American citizens for involvement in a plot to murder the Republican president-elect.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, an asset of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is believed to reside in Iran.

Two individuals, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, were arrested from Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York on Thursday.

According to statements made by Shakeri in recorded interviews, he was tasked by the Iranian regime on October 7 to devise a plan to kill Trump, who was re-elected as the president of the US earlier this week.

However, Shakeri claimed he did not intend to carry out the plan within the deadline set by the IRGC.

Shakeri, who was deported to Iran in 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction, said he was also instructed to surveil two Jewish American citizens in New York City and was offered USD 500,000 by an IRGC official to kill either of them.

He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, according to the Department of Justice.

“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.

He added that Shakeri was tasked by the "regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Trump.”

Garland said that Rivera and Loadholt were arrested and charged for involvement in a network to "silence and kill" an American journalist critical of the Iranian regime.

At Shakeri's instruction, the two spent months surveilling an American citizen of Iranian origin in the US.

"We will not stand for the Iranian regime's attempts to endanger the American people and America's national security,” he said.

Rivera and Loadholt made their initial appearance in the Southern District of New York on Thursday and were ordered detained pending trial.

The charges expose Iran's continued brazen attempts to target US citizens, including Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticise the regime in Tehran, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The IRGC — a designated foreign terrorist organisation — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on US soil and that simply won't be tolerated,” Wray said.

“Actors directed by the Government of Iran continue to target our citizens...This has to stop,” said US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

"Today's charges are another message to those who continue in their efforts – we will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of bad actors, no matter where they reside, and will stop at nothing to bring to justice those who harm our safety and security,” he said.