Three men have been charged in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to kill people in the United States that included an alleged effort to assassinate Donald Trump while he campaigned for a second term in office, according to a criminal complaint unsealed today in the Southern District of New York. 

The complaint is based on a sworn account by an FBI agent that includes what are described as voluntary phone interviews with Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan alleged operative for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

Shakeri, one of the three men charged, allegedly told investigators he began an assignment to try to kill Trump in mid-to-late September. 

On October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas massacre of Israelis last year in southern Israel, Shakeri was given a deadline to devise a plan to assassinate Trump, the filing says. 

Shakeri told investigators his Revolutionary Guard contacts paused the effort to try to kill Trump when Shakeri failed to come up with a solid plan. 

The complaint also says Shakeri told investigators that his handlers believed Trump would lose the election and that it would be easier to go after him once he had been defeated. 

Shakeri’s co-defendants, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, both New York City residents, are being held without bail after appearing before a magistrate judge in US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday. 

Shakeri is believed to be in Iran and remains at large. 

Justice Department officials said Iran has been engaged in a widespread effort to get even for the January 2020 death of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of an elite Revolutionary Guard force who was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad. The targets were said to include Americans and US allies. 

Shakeri developed a network of criminal associates in the United States while serving a 14-year prison term there for robbery, and investigators said he tapped into that group to assist Iran. 

“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 in a statement. Shakeri “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 J. Trump,” he said. 

A prominent Iranian dissident and journalist, Masih Alinejad, identified herself on X as another victim cited in the indictment. Alinejad, who lives in Brooklyn, has been targeted for assassination by Iran multiple times on US soil, according to investigators. 

- Shayna Jacobs & Josh Dawsey, Washington Post