The FBI foiled a chilling plot by Iran’s secret service to assassinate Donald Trump just a month before the election, the US intelligence service revealed last night.
Three alleged hitmen have been charged over the ‘murder-for-hire’ scheme ordered by the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as revenge for the 2020 killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.
In the wake of the thwarted scheme, one of the would-be assassins Farhad Shakeri, 51, has fled to Tehran after confessing to the FBI in recorded phone calls that he was instructed to delay the plot because Iran believed Trump would lose the election.
The hitman, who was described as an ‘asset’ of the IRGC, told the law enforcement agency that they believed it would be easier to assassinate Trump without his full-presidential-level Secret Service detail.
Shakeri – along with New Yorkers Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, – are also accused of targeting an Iranian-American activist and were offered $500,000 to kill two Jewish businessmen living in the U.S.
He allegedly confessed to the FBI that the Iranians had been devoting as much money as possible to ensure efforts to kill Mr Trump were carried out. The other two men are currently under arrest.
Mr Trump has already survived two attempts on his life, including avoiding death by a fraction of an inch when he was shot in the ear at an election rally in Pennsylvania in July.
While in a US jail, Shakeri, who is described as an ‘asset’ of the IRGC, recruited two gun-toting American criminals to carry out the assassination, according to the US Department of Justice.
Shakeri, 51, said his Iranian handlers had instructed him last month to produce a plan within seven days to kill Mr Trump ahead of the election, according to documents unsealed last night.
He explained he had been tasked with surveilling and killing Trump to avenge the devastating drone strike that killed Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in January 2020.
Since the Soleimani’s death, Trump has been a target during his election campaign where he asked for military planes and larger Secret Service detail to protect him from Iranian threats.
Shakeri reportedly told his spymasters Trump’s assassination would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money, to which they allegedly replied: ‘We have already spent a lot of money so the money’s not an issue.’
FBI special agent Mathew Chrusz said this was understood to mean that the Iranians had previously spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Mr Trump.
After being ordered to assassinate Trump with a month before millions of Americans went to the polls on November 5, Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to carry out the operation in the timeframe he was given.
Shakeri – an Afghan refugee granted asylum in America – was deported back to Iran in 2008 after serving a 14-year sentence for armed robbery in New York state prisons
However according to Mr Chrusz, he maintained an extensive prison contact base, recruiting two accomplices while serving time in the US for his crime.
Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, were both in prison for violent offences, and both men have now been arrested and charged with offences relating to ‘murder-for-hire’.
The disturbing documents unsealed by the Department of Justice Friday revealed the arsenal of weapons the assassins had at their disposal and the texts messages they sent each other to concoct their deadly plan.
The trio also shared frightening voice messages, urging patience and detailing how they would follow their targets.
But Shakeri, having allegedly made admissions to US agents, is currently ensconced in the Iranian capital out of reach of American law enforcement.
Announcing the charges last night, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said: ‘There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran.
‘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 J Trump.’
According to the FBI, the IRGC also tasked Shakeri with carrying out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens in the United States.
Rivera and Loadholt were allegedly directed by Shakeri to surveil an unnamed U.S. citizen who is an ‘outspoken critic’ of the Iranian regime.
‘In exchange for Shakeri’s promise of $100,000, Rivera and Loadholt repeatedly sought to locate Victim-1 for murder,’ the complaint states.
They travelled to Fairfield University in Connecticut, where the individual was set to appear earlier this year, and also stalked her home in Brooklyn.
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad said on Fox News Friday that she is the individual that was targeted for murder.
Shakeri told Rivera in a voice note when discussing the murder plot: ‘You just gotta have patience … You gotta wait and have patience to catch her either going in the house or coming out, or following her out somewhere and taking care of it. Don’t think about going in. In is a suicide move.’
Alinejad said she is ‘grateful’ to the FBI for informing her ahead of the Fairfield University event, which she skipped to ‘project the students.’
‘I don’t want to die. I want to be alive to see the end of this regime,’ Alinejad added.
This comes shortly after Trump said he would blow Iran ‘to smithereens’ if he was back at the helm of the oval office last September.
It came as a former head of MI6 has told Europe to wake up and ‘smell the coffee’ about its need to protect the continent following Mr Trump’s presidential victory.
Sir Alex Younger said subsequent generations would not easily forgive the political leaders of this era should they fail to take remedial action.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, he said: ‘Trump is disdainful of alliances, he takes a highly transactional approach to them.
‘The security guarantee we have enjoyed for 80 years, since the Second World War, is obviously going to have to change.’
In his first call with Volodymyr Zelensky since winning the election, Mr Trump invited tech billionaire Elon Musk to join the conversation.
It is the latest indication that Mr Musk will play a prominent role in Mr Trump’s administration.
It remained unclear last night what the Ukrainian president made of the move, as he has previously clashed with Mr Musk.