Justice Department indicts three Iranians for conspiracy to kill Trump and Jews

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(Nov. 8, 2024 / JNS) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday indicted three men it said were involved in an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump and kill Jews, Israelis and an Iranian-American human rights activist. .

Prosecutors charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera, 49, Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, on two counts of murder-for-hire and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum of 40 years in prison per individual.

In addition, the Shakers are charged with terrorism and sanctions violation charges, with the possibility of an additional 60 years in prison.

“Today’s indictments expose Iran’s continued brazen efforts to target US citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents critical of the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — colludes with criminals and murderers to target and kill Americans on U.S. soil, and that simply will not be tolerated,” Wray added.

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Police arrested Lodholt and Rivera on Thursday, and they appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York the same day. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran, according to the Justice Department.

According to the criminal complaint, Shakeri, on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attempted to orchestrate the targeted killings of Americans and mass killings of Israelis.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American human rights activist who the regime previously tried to kill in a botched attack in Brooklyn in 2022, on Friday identified herself as one of the potential targets of an assassination plot.

“I just learned from the FBI that yesterday at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk, two men were arrested in a new plot to kill me,” she wrote. “I came to America to exercise my First Amendment right to free speech — I don’t want to die.”

In a series of phone calls between September and November, Shakeri told FBI agents that the IRGC had instructed him in mid-September to try to kill Trump and that he was willing to spend a “tremendous” amount of money to do so.

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The terrorist organization also instructed him to kill two “Jewish businessmen living in New York,” identified in the complaint as “Victim-2” and “Victim-3.”

“Shakeri explained that the IRGC provided him with photographs of Victim 2 and Victim 3, which Shakeri said purported to be from social media and indicated Victim 2 and Victim 3’s support for Israel,” the complaint states.

The IRGC offered 500,000 dollars each for the murder of two Jews.

The terrorist group also charged him with planning the mass shooting of Israeli tourists in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka, which was foiled by US and Sri Lankan authorities, who arrested three men in October after Israel and the United States warned of an impending attack.

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