The United States announces the thwarting of an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump before his re-election as president

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before the presidential election held last Tuesday, which the Republican candidate won for a four-year term starting in January.

The department filed criminal charges in what it described as a “kill-for-hire scheme,” alleging that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps official instructed a contact last September to develop a plan to surveil and kill Trump before the election.

“There are few entities in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Trump’s campaign said U.S. officials warned him in September of a suspected Iranian plot to assassinate him.

According to the Associated Press, investigators learned of the plot to kill Trump while interviewing an Afghan national named Farhadi Shakeri, who told investigators that a contact in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard directed him in September to develop a plan within seven days to monitor and kill Trump. Shakeri is currently at large in Iran, the documents show.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan today, two other American men who authorities allege were recruited to participate in multiple assassinations have been arrested, including a prominent Iranian-American journalist.

Shakeri reportedly told investigators that if he could not achieve his goal before the elections, the IRGC would wait until after the presidential elections to go ahead and implement the plan.

“These announced charges reveal Iran’s continued attempts to target American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders, and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Iran has conspired with criminals and murderers to target and shoot Americans on American soil,” he added. “This simply will not be tolerated.”

The recently released complaint also includes allegations that authorities disrupted another plot to assassinate Masih Alinejad, a Brooklyn human rights activist who has long been critical of Iran's repression of women.

Trump was shot and killed during a rally in Pennsylvania in July, while the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was killed. Secret Service agents removed Trump from the rally stage in Pennsylvania after he fell to the ground.

Trump announced after the incident that he had been shot in the ear. He wrote on his Truth Social platform: “I was shot through the top of my right ear.” He added: “It is unconscionable that something like this could happen in our country.”

On August 11, the Trump campaign said some of its internal communications had been hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostility between the former US president and Iran but offering no evidence.

The campaign's announcement came after Politico said it began receiving emails from an anonymous account containing documents from within the Trump campaign, including a report on "potential vulnerabilities" for then-Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

(New Arab)