The Department of Justice has arrested and charged multiple Iranian assets for their connection to a murder-for-hire network — with targets that included President-elect Donald Trump.
“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 said in a Friday statement. “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 Trump.”
He continued, “We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime. We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle “Pop” Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, were charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy in New York on Friday. Rivera and Loadholt were arrested on Thursday, and Shakeri remains at-large, presumably in Iran.
“Shakeri was tasked by Iranian Regime with surveilling and plotting to assassinate President-elect Donald J. Trump,” the DOJ alleged in their Friday complaint.
The news notably comes just three days after the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. This also marks the third failed assassination attempt against Trump in the past four months.
Shakeri has been further charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Government of Iran.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray shared in a statement. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated. Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, their deadly schemes were disrupted. We’re committed to using the full resources of the FBI to protect our citizens from Iran or any other adversary who targets Americans.”
“Actors directed by the Government of Iran continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on U.S. soil and abroad. This has to stop,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York added. “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. I want to thank the career prosecutors of this office and our law enforcement partners for their ongoing work in this and related investigations. They are truly the best of the best and work tirelessly to keep our country safe.”
In addition to targeting Trump, the network is also accused of plotting to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has publicly opposed the government on Iran.
