The US has accused an Iranian agent of plotting Trumpʼs assassination

Author:
Olha Bereziuk
Date:

The US Ministry of Justice has charged an Iranian with conspiring to kill the newly elected US President Donald Trump.

This is stated in the message of the ministry.

We are talking about 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri. He immigrated to the US as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for robbery. In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in a US prison to supply the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with surveillance and assassination operatives. Two members of Shakeriʼs network are his co-defendants, Lodholt and Rivera.

The US Department of Justice claims that on Shakeriʼs instructions, two of his accomplices spent months monitoring a US citizen of Iranian descent who lived in the US and is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.

In addition, the IRGC instructed Shakera to carry out other assassinations of American and Israeli citizens residing in the United States.

He told the law enforcement officers that on October 7, 2024, he was instructed to develop a plan to kill Trump. At the same time, Shakeri emphasized that he did not even plan to create such a plan for the IRGC.

In addition, according to Shakeri, he was instructed to monitor two American citizens of Jewish origin who lived in New York and was offered $500,000 to kill each victim. He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

What preceded

In September, Reuters reported that the US intelligence officials had informed Trump of possible threats from Iran to kill him.

Trump later requested additional protection for himself in the final weeks of the campaign.

This is not the first time that there has been talk of Iranʼs alleged desire to kill Trump. Thus, on January 14, 2022, an animated video appeared on the website of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in which a drone shoots at Trump, who is playing golf.

Attempts on Trump

On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump was shot at least five times at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who fired with an AR-15 rifle. Trump was hit by one bullet — it pierced the top of his ear. A 50-year-old man died from other bullets, and two more people were wounded. Crooks was shot dead by the Secret Service.

On the afternoon of September 15, there was a shooting near Donald Trumpʼs golf club in Florida. Trump himself was not injured. It later emerged that the Secret Service opened fire after an agent saw the barrel of a gun sticking out of bushes near Trumpʼs golf course in West Palm Beach. It was not far from where the former US president was playing at the time. The shooter fled in an SUV, and officers found a loaded assault rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag of food at the scene. He probably waited there for about 12 hours. 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Raut is suspected of the shooting, he was charged with attempted murder of a politician.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.