Donald Trump — Iranian Man Arrested For Plotting To Kill Trump At The Alleged Urging Of The Government
Donald Trump — Iranian Man Arrested For Plotting To Kill Trump At The Alleged Urging Of The Government
According to AP News, the Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said a government official had tasked him before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
Investigators were told of the plan to kill Donald Trump by Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.
Shakeri told the FBI that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
Shakeri quoted the official as saying, “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Donald Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.
Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.