The world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, vehemently denied this weekend that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attempted to recruit a U.S.-based agent to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed on Friday.
The DOJ unsealed an indictment on Friday identifying a man, Farhad Shakeri, as an “Iranian asset” who helped recruit Americans with criminal records to assassinate anti-Iranian regime dissidents and others the regime deemed detrimental to its agenda. American law enforcement officials said that, in an interview with Shakeri, the suspect claimed that IRGC terrorists recruited him to hatch a scheme to kill Trump, emphasizing that money was not a problem for such a high-profile target. Shakeri remains at large, believed to be in Iran, the DOJ said on Friday.
Trump survived an assassination attempt on live television during a campaign rally in July, which officials have not indicated has any ties to the Iranian regime. A second man, arrested under suspicion of attempting to assassinate Trump in September, was later found to have written a book suggesting to the government of Iran that it should kill the president-elect.
Trump is expected to return to the White House in January after decisively winning the November 5 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris. His victory prompted a wave of world leaders from America-friendly nations to celebrate his win. Iran, one of the most vitriolic anti-American rogue states in the world, shrugged off the significance of the election.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei dismissed the importance of the election and denied that Tehran had any plans to kill Trump.
“What is important and related to our region is the United States’ performance regarding the region and Iran” and not who occupies the White House, Baghaei told reporters, according to the Iranian propaganda outlet PressTV.
Confronted about the DOJ’s indictment implicating the IRGC – a branch of the Iranian armed forces and a U.S.-designated terrorist organization – in attempting to organize an assassination plot against Trump, Baghaei denied it.
“Baghaei said it is regrettable that the American officials spend their time and energy to make claims that have no basis,” PressTV shared, adding that spokesman claimed the indictment was “a kind of minelaying” to ensure no improvement in relations between Washington and Tehran.
Baghaei’s statements on Monday follow a flat denial on Saturday of the allegations as “completely baseless and unsubstantiated.” The spokesman ominously added, however, that Iran would use “all legitimate and legal means at domestic and international levels to restore the rights of the Iranian nation.”
The latter comment is apparently a reference to Iran’s persistent efforts to prosecute Trump, and several members of his first administration, for ordering an airstrike to eliminate Qasem Soleimani, the then-head of the IRGC Quds Force, in 2020. Soleimani died in the airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the founder of the Iraqi terrorist Hezbollah Brigades. The Quds Force is a foreign terrorist operations arm of the IRGC and Soleimani was believed responsible for hundreds of deaths of innocent Americans and others.
Baghaei’s boss, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, mocked the DOJ indictment on Saturday, calling it “fabricated.”
“As a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy. Who can in their right mind believe that a supposed assassin sits in Iran and talks online to the FBI?!” Araghchi wrote on social media.
The foreign minister added that Iran “respects” the American people’s choice to elect Trump.
Tehran has repeatedly threatened Trump’s life over Soleimani’s elimination and claimed to have “indicted” and “convicted” Trump for homicide, though Iranian courts never offered any evidence of a legitimate litigation process occurring. In December 2023, Iran demanded the U.S. government pay $50 billion in damages for the airstrike.
Iran has also platformed calls for Trump’s killing. In the immediate aftermath of Soleimani’s death, a speaker at his funeral attempted to crowdsource $80 million for a bounty on Trump.
“If everyone anywhere in the world supports our initiative in Mashhad, on behalf of all of Iran’s people — 80 million Iranians — and each puts aside $1 US, it would equal $80 million,” the speaker said.
The indictment unsealed on Friday charged Shakeri and two New Yorkers, Carlisle “Pop” Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, with murder-for-hire and related charges. The DOJ suggested that Rivera and Loadholt were not aware that, in discussing assassination plots with Shakeri, they were working in concern with the Iranian government. The two are primarily implicated in a plot the DOJ alleged to have been organized against a prominent dissident of the Iranian regime, unnamed in the indictment but widely speculated to be anti-mandatory hijab activist Masih Alinejad. Alinejad appeared to confirm she was the target in remarks on Sunday to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
“The Islamic republic has been disgraced three times…. The humiliation of [Iranian authorities] is truly pleasing,” she said, referring to two other abduction and potential assassination plots against her.
As part of the investigation involving the Iranian dissident assassination plot, the DOJ claimed Shakeri said the IRGC asked him to “put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
He claimed the IRGC gave him a week’s deadline in September to plan the killing, but if he did not come up with a plan, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential election because “IRGC Official-I assessed that Victim-4 would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate Victim-4.”
“The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is actively targeting nationals of the United States and its allies living in countries around the world for attacks, including assault, kidnapping, and murder,” the U.S. government concluded.
