On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice released new charges detailing a thwarted murder-for-hire plot ordered by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against President Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the election, and the Biden administration added new pressure to act.
According to newly unsealed documents, criminal chargesIn a case filed in the Southern District of New York, the Revolutionary Guards in September ordered Iranian officials to focus on “surveillance” and putting together a plan to assassinate President Trump before the Nov. 5 election. did.
Trump was briefed by US intelligence officials in September about Iran's assassination threat against him, a campaign official confirmed.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Fox News in October that they considered Iran's threat to President Trump a “paramount” national security issue and that they believe the Iranian threat to Trump is a “paramount” national security issue. He said any attempt by the Revolutionary Guards to do so would be retaliated against. A dynamic military action equivalent to an “act of war.”
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Qasem Soleimani, the late commander of Iran's Quds Force, attended a meeting between Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran in 2016. President Trump has been a target of the Revolutionary Guards since 2020, when he ordered a strike to topple Soleimani. (Spokesperson of the Supreme Leader of Iran/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to Fox News' requests for comment about the nature of the threat from the Revolutionary Guards or how they plan to respond.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a military and counterintelligence agency designated as a terrorist organization during President Trump's first term.
Trump has been a target of the Revolutionary Guards since January 2020, when as president he ordered a drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
News of the thwarted attack on Trump comes after he survived two unrelated assassination attempts earlier this year while campaigning for his second term as president. The first incident happened in July at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and the second in September while playing golf at a park. his property in Florida;
In the center of the photo is Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei wearing a black turban. (Iran Supreme Leader's Office/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)
Threats from Iran detailed in a now-unsealed criminal complaint have prompted the Secret Service to tighten security around the Trump campaign in recent months.
It's unclear whether or how President Trump plans to further tighten security at his official residence in the months leading up to Inauguration Day.
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will speak Thursday at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC. The Justice Department is preparing charges over Iran's efforts to influence the 2024 election cycle. (Photographer: Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday that “few forces in the world pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran.”
“We do not support the Iranian regime's efforts to endanger the American people and our national security.”
In the criminal complaint, U.S. prosecutors An anonymous Revolutionary Guards official said. had asked its official, Farhad Shakeri, to “focus on the surveillance and eventual assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.”
The Justice Department said Shakeri is still a fugitive and is believed to be living in Iran, where he immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction. said. Trump refers to the filing as “Victim-4.”
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“According to Shakeri, in a meeting with IRGC Official I on or about October 7, 2024, IRGC Official I instructed Shakeri to submit a plan to kill Victim 4 within seven days. If you are unable to submit your plan within IRGC Official-I went on to say that within that time frame, the IRGC would suspend its plans to kill Victim-4 until after the US presidential election, after which Victim-4 would lose the election. will become easier,” the document said.
Federal prosecutors also arrested Carlyle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York, and Jonathan Rodholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, for their “alleged involvement” in a plot to kill Iranian-Americans. was indicted and arrested. In New York.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the threats or the investigation.
