By The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has revealed details of a foiled assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump, allegedly orchestrated by an asset of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Federal court documents unsealed in New York on Friday outline criminal charges against 51-year-old Farjad Shakeri, who reportedly planned the assassination at the direction of a high-ranking IRGC official.
Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the Iranian regime’s targeting of American nationals, calling the assassination plot a grave threat to U.S. national security. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked to direct a network of associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” Garland said.
One of the plotters said that he was assigned in September to carry out the plan by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, the prosecutors said in court papers, writes The New York Times.
An Iranian operative said he was told to put aside other efforts he was undertaking on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards and “focus on surveilling, and ultimately, assassinating” Mr. Trump, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
The operative told a Revolutionary Guards official that such a plan would cost a “huge” amount of money, the complaint said. In response, the official said, “We have already spent a lot of money,” adding that “money’s not an issue.”
The new allegation about a plan to kill Mr. Trump is the latest alarming development for U.S. security officials, who have been concerned since the summer that Iran appeared to be escalating plans for violence inside the United States, including against the president-elect, who has been Tehran’s nemesis.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump faced two assassination attempts. In July, a gunman shot him in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Months later, another individual appeared with a firearm near the edge of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The alleged would-be assassin in Florida had previously made connections with Ukraine and was found to have tried to recruit for that country’s foreign legion as it continues its war against Russia.
Although no evidence suggests these incidents were part of a larger conspiracy, federal officials have warned Trump that Iran may be attempting to assassinate him. “There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated.
In September, Matt Gaetz, a member of the House of Representatives, claimed there were five different “assassination teams” on the hunt to kill the president-elect.
Iran has not only been targeting Trump, but also other members of his previous administration, as well. In 2022, the FBI disclosed alarming information indicating that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has placed bounties on two former high-ranking U.S. officials: former U.N. Ambassador and National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
An unsealed affidavit reveals that U.S. law enforcement has identified Shahram Poursafi as an operative within Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, now wanted by the FBI for allegedly attempting to hire assassins to target these former members of the Trump administration.
Prosecutors outlined that the plot was conceived roughly a year after the U.S. carried out a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the influential leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, who had been orchestrating proxy wars that led to the deaths of U.S. soldiers across the Middle East. Soleimani reportedly planned further attacks on Americans when President Trump authorized the strike that ultimately killed him in Baghdad.
After the news broke of Soleimani’s death, Bolton took to Twitter, expressing his approval: “Congratulations to all involved in eliminating Qassem Soleimani. Long in the making, this was a decisive blow against Iran’s malign Quds Force activities worldwide. Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran.” In response, Iran’s supreme leader vowed revenge.
[Read More: Dems Have Lame Duck Plans]
