The US government has filed charges against an Iranian man in connection with a conspiracy to blackmail Donald Trump before he is elected the next president.
The Justice Department on Friday filed charges against Farhad Shakeri, 51, who it says was tasked with “providing a plan” to kill Trump.
The US government said Mr Shakeri has not been arrested and is believed to be in Iran.
In a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan court, prosecutors said a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ordered Mr. Shakeri in September to carry out a surveillance plan to kill Trump.
“The Department of Justice has charged an Iranian state agent who was commissioned by the government to target a network of criminal associates to further assassination plans against Iran, including President-elect Donald Trump,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. statement.
The Department of Justice added that it has charged two others who allegedly conspired to kill an American journalist who was critical of Iran.
The other two people were identified by the Department of Justice as Carlisle Rivera, also known as “Pop”, 49, of Brooklyn, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Shakeri told them he had no intention of suggesting a plot to kill Trump when the Iranian government wanted him to, so Republican security officials stopped the plan.
Mr. Shakeri was asked to come up with a plan to kill Trump within seven days, the lawsuit said. If he couldn’t do that, Mr Sakeri said Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers told him it would be easy to try to kill Trump after the election, because they believed he would lose, prosecutors said.
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