Three men have been charged in an apparent murder-for-hire plot to assassinate soon-to-be-President Donald Trump. The Department of Justice announced the charges, Friday, November 8, describing the effort as a revenge plot in retaliation against Trump’s involvement in the death of a top Iranian commander.
In January 2020, the commander of the Quds Force – part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Qasem Soleimani, was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad under orders from then-President Trump. According to USA Today, “Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; and Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of New York were named in the indictment.”
Both Loadholt and Rivera were arrested in New York, yesterday. It is believed that the third suspect, Shakeri, is currently in Iran. In a prepared statement, 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 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."
You can read the unsealed indictment below:
📄 Open iranian-trump-assassination-plot-charges-doj.pdf in a new tab
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