Iranian Agents Plotted to Kill Trump, U.S. Says in Unsealed Charges

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Friday that Iranian plotters had discussed a plan to assassinate Donald J. Trump before he was re-elected as president this week.

One of the plotters said that he was assigned in September to carry out the plan by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, the prosecutors said in court papers.

An Iranian operative said he was told to put aside other efforts he was undertaking on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards and “focus on surveilling, and ultimately, assassinating” Mr. Trump, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.

{snip}

The new allegation about a plan to kill Mr. Trump is the latest alarming development for U.S. security officials, who have been concerned since the summer that Iran appeared to be escalating plans for violence inside the United States, including against the president-elect, who has been Tehran’s nemesis.

{snip}

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” said Christopher Wray, director of the F.B.I.

Iran “has been conspiring with criminals and hit men to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated,” he said.

{snip}

The man prosecutors said was tasked with the plot to kill Mr. Trump and Ms. Alinejad was Farhad Shakeri, 51. Mr. Shakeri, following a guilty plea to robbery, spent 14 years in New York state prisons, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said he was at large and is believed to reside in Iran.

Two men also charged in the plots were arrested and are in custody in New York. They are Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island.

{snip}