Three people have been charged in a series of alleged assassination plots linked to Iran, and one of them is accused of trying to assassinate the president-elect. donald trumpand others directed at an Iranian-American activist and two Jewish Americans living in New York, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in New York.

Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt are accused of murder for hire, according to the US Department of Justice. Rivera and Loadholt have been arrested, while Shakeri, whom the FBI described as an “asset” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to be in Tehran.

The IRGC tasked Shakeri with monitoring and killing Trump for revenge. the death of Qassem Soleimanileader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, according to the complaint.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran does. The Justice Department has charged an Iranian regime asset who was tasked by the regime to run a network of criminal associates to promote Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald J. Trump,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.

Shakeri immigrated to the United States but was deported in 2008 after serving prison time for robbery, according to the Department of Justice. While in prison, he met Rivera and Loadholt and hired them to attack an Iranian-American activist living in Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

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Although she is not named in the complaint, the activist matches the description of Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has criticized the Iranian government and has been the target of multiple plots. federal prosecutors criminal charges announced last month against Brig. of the IRGC. General Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with an alleged assassination plot against Alinejad.

Alinejad later posted on social media that she was one of the targets, writing“I’m in shock. I just learned from the @FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk.”

The IRGC also commissioned Shakeri to carry out other assassinations against American and Israeli citizens located in the United States, including Trump, the complaint alleges.

In mid-to-late September, Shakeri told the FBI that the IRGC official had ordered him to “put aside his other efforts” and “focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating former US President Donald J. Trump.” , he said the complaint. When Shakeri told his handler that it would cost a lot of money, the IRGC official is quoted as responding “we have already spent a lot of money… so money is not a problem.”

Shakeri told the FBI that during an Oct. 7 meeting with his IRGC handler he was asked to present a plan within seven days to kill Trump. If it couldn’t be done within that time frame, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Trump until after the election “because IRGC Officer-1 assessed that (Trump) would lose the election and then it would be easier to kill (Trump) ),” the complaint says.

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He also claimed that he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish-American citizens residing in New York City and was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official to murder either victim, according to the complaint. He was also tasked with attacking Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, according to the complaint.

“Actors led by the Government of Iran continue to attack our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on American soil and abroad. This must stop,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today’s charges are another message to those who continue their efforts: we will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of bad actors, no matter where they reside, and we will stop at nothing to bring to justice those who harm our security.”

Three charged with Iran-linked assassination plots, one targeting Donald Trump as revenge for Qassem Soleimani killing: Justice Department originally appeared on abcnews.go.com