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    • Three men charged with thwarting Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump: Justice Department
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    Three men charged with thwarting Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump: Justice Department

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    WASHINGTON – Three men were charged with plotting to murder people President-elect Donald Trump in revenge for the death of a top Iranian military commander, the Justice Department announced Friday.

    Farhad Shakeri, 51, from Iran; and Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of New York, were named in the indictment.

    Rivera and Loadholt were arrested Thursday in New York and ordered detained pending trial during an initial court appearance. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.

    The charges allege that Iran has been targeting American citizens to avenge the January 2020 death of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, who was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad by Trump’s order.

    Further: Iran tries to assassinate Donald Trump and other US leaders, officials say

    The three defendants were each charged with murder for hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years; conspiracy to commit murder, which carries a 10-year sentence, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a 20-year sentence.

    Iran has personally attacked Trump with assassination plots and his campaign using hacking attempts as he sought to disrupt the 2024 presidential race, officials say.

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

    Shakeri is an Iranian Republican Guard asset who lives in Tehran, Iran, according to prosecutors. Shakeri had immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in approximately 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction.

    In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison to provide the Iranian Republican Guard with agents to carry out surveillance and assassinations. Two members of Shakeri’s alleged network are his co-defendants, Loadholt and Rivera.

    Further: Trump says US intelligence briefed him on how Iran wants to assassinate him to sow discord in the US.

    The two men charged in New York were also allegedly recruited to kill an American journalist who was a prominent critic of Iran, Garland said.

    Prosecutors did not identify the target, but he matched the description of Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who has criticized Iran’s veil laws for women. Four Iranians were charged in 2021 in connection with a plot to kidnap her, and in 2022 a man was arrested with a rifle outside her home.

    “We will not tolerate the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and American national security,” Garland said.

    Sakege
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