The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed charges against three men, one of them Iranian, who were tasked by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to kill Donald Trump before the election.
This is at least the second assassination plot by Iran uncovered by the Justice Department. The first plot involved a Pakistani national with ties to Iran who hired a "hitman" to kill Trump. The "hit man" was a federal agent, and the would-be assassin was arrested in July before he left the U.S.
This is an entirely new plot uncovered by DoJ and is much more involved than the first plot. Iranian officials tasked Farhad Shakeri with "surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump," according to court documents.
CNN:
Prosecutors allege Shakeri – who participated in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally tasked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to carrying out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens inside the US. But IRGC officials told Shakeri on October 7 to focus only on Trump, court documents say, and that he had seven days to formulate an assassination plan.
Shakeri, who is an Afghan national residing in Tehran, told investigators that if he was unable to do come up with a plan in that timeframe, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election to move forward as they believed Trump would lose.
The two other individuals charged, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, who are American citizens, were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government surveil a separate US citizen of Iranian origin. They made their initial appearance in court on Thursday, the Justice Department said, and are being detained pending trial.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”
Iran has to know that successfully targeting an American president or president-elect for assassination would lead to the destruction of Iran. That they're willing to absorb titanic blows that would almost certainly destroy their economy, not to mention making them international pariahs as no other modern nation has, speaks directly to their total fanaticism.
I would argue that the plot to kill Trump itself is a casus belli. It puts Iran outside the circle of civilized nations. At the very least, they should be severely sanctioned by all U.S. allies beyond what they're already being sanctioned for.
Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”
I have zero confidence in the dysfunctional and disorganized Secret Service to protect the president. That said, America has very little choice but to rely on the individual courage and bravery of the president's protective detail to prevent the Iranians from carrying out their dastardly plans.
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