FBI: Iran Plotted to Kill Trump Before Election

Charges unsealed in court in New York
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 8, 2024 12:10 PM CST
FBI: Iran Plotted to Kill Trump Before Election
Donald Trump watches a video screen at a campaign rally at the Salem Civic Center, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Salem, Va.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Iran tried to engineer a plot to assassinate Donald Trump before the election, federal prosecutors say. Investigators learned of the alleged plot to kill Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national identified by officials as an Iranian government asset, per the AP. He told investigators that a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him in September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan.

Shakeri, who is believed to be at large in Iran, told his contact in the Revolutionary Guard that killing Trump would require a vast sum of money, according to the court papers. "We have already spent a lot of money," the contact responded, per the New York Times. "Money's not an issue." However, the court filing says Iran put the plot on hold when Shakeri failed to come up with a workable plan, reports the Washington Post. He allegedly said Trump would likely lose the election and thus would be easier to kill afterward.

Two other men who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations were arrested Friday. The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump's defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot. "There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)

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