WASHINGTON: U.S. prosecutors announced charges Friday (Nov. 8) in an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump and a prominent Iranian-American dissident journalist.

The foiled Trump assassination plot was allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to avenge the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020 in a U.S. strike ordered by then-President Trump, the Justice Department said. .

Farhad Shakeri, 51, an Afghan national believed to be in Iran, was “tasked” by the IRGC to provide a plan to kill Trump, who Defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s US presidential election, the department said in a statement.

Shakeri and two other men, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both of New York, were separately charged with plotting to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York.

Rivera and Loadholt are in US custody and appeared in court in New York on Thursday.

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders, and dissidents critical of the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.