November 9, 2024
On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed a report from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that alleged an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump. The DOJ report, filed in a New York federal court, outlined a plot involving an Iranian national, Farhad Shakeri, who was allegedly directed by an official within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to monitor and plan an attack against Trump.
The DOJ’s criminal complaint claims that Shakeri, a 51-year-old Iranian citizen, was instructed on October 7, 2024, to create a strategy to assassinate President-elect Trump. Shakeri allegedly communicated this task to law enforcement, according to the report, and remains at large, reportedly in Iran. The complaint also details that Shakeri is believed to have recruited two New York residents to carry out a related assassination attempt against an American journalist of Iranian origin who has been a vocal critic of the Iranian government. The DOJ identified the journalist as Masih Alinejad, who has faced previous threats from the Iranian regime.
In response to the allegations, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei dismissed the report as “completely baseless.” He condemned the DOJ’s claims as “a malicious conspiracy orchestrated by Zionist and anti-Iranian circles” with the intent to “further complicate” U.S.-Iran relations. Baghaei further asserted that Iran has consistently rejected similar accusations in the past, emphasizing that Iran remains committed to international legal standards.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, however, reiterated the DOJ’s commitment to countering threats from Iran, stating, “We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”
The DOJ’s complaint states that Shakeri, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child and was deported in 2008 after a prison sentence, faces multiple charges. These include murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering, with each charge carrying a maximum penalty of 10 to 20 years. Additional charges accuse him of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which could result in up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Iran’s government has not issued further statements regarding the DOJ’s legal actions against Shakeri and his alleged accomplices.
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