Title: Unveiling the Alleged Iranian-backed Murder Plot Involving US President-Elect Donald Trump

On November 8, the Department of Justice in the United States (DOJ) revealed criminal accusations that entailed an alleged scheme, supposedly supported by Iran, intended to assassinate Donald Trump, the incoming US president, prior to the November 5 elections.

The legal complaint lodged charges against three individuals, inclusive of an Iranian national, in correlation with their purported engagement in a different plot to assassinate a US citizen of Iranian descent.

Both New York residents, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, were two of the three charged individuals. They were presented in court on November 7 and have been held in custody awaiting trial, as stated by the DOJ. Farjad Shakeri, the third man who is still at large, is suspected to be hiding in Iran.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, in a press release, pointed out that these charges reveal Iran’s sustained audacious attempts to target US citizens, which include the incoming President Donald Trump, other government officials, and critics of the Tehran regime.

Shakeri is accused of enlisting Rivera and Loadhold to trail and assassinate a distinguished Iranian-American. The identity of the target was not disclosed in the press release or in the court documents, but it seems to be Masih Alinejad, the dissident journalist.

Alinejad, who has been openly critical of Iran’s laws mandating women to wear a hijab, was the target of a kidnap plot in 2021. In 2022, a man was detained outside her residence with a rifle in his possession. She expressed shock upon learning about the plot from the FBI.

Alinejad urged Trump to adopt a tough stance on terrorism, stating, “The Islamic Republic understands only one language: the language of pressure.”

The DOJ identified Shakeri as an immigrant to the US serving as an asset for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), deported around 2008 after a 14-year prison sentence for robbery.

As per the legal complaint, Shakeri revealed the plot to assassinate Trump during phone conversations with FBI agents in the recent past. He was hoping for a sentence reduction for a person imprisoned in the US.

The DOJ explained that Shakeri conspired with Rivera and Loadholt, his prison acquaintances, to aid the IRGC with operatives for surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets. He also pledged to pay $100,000 in a murder-for-hire scheme, with Alinejad seeming to be the target.

Furthermore, the IRGC assigned Shakeri with executing other assassinations of US and Israeli citizens in the US. On October 7, 2024, Shakeri was tasked with devising a plan to assassinate Donald Trump.

The criminal complaint states that Shakeri couldn’t draft a plan within the time frame requested by the IRGC official. The official then informed him that Iran would postpone the plan until after the presidential election, believing it would be easier to assassinate Trump if he lost the election.

The US has recurrently accused Iran of planning to assassinate US officials in retaliation for the 2020 drone strike killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

During his first term, Trump pulled the US out of an international nuclear agreement with Iran and other nuclear powers, imposed new sanctions on Iran, and labeled the IRGC a terrorist organization.

Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt are all charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money-laundering conspiracy, each carrying maximum penalties of 10 and 20 years in prison, respectively. Additional charges related to terrorism have been filed against Shakeri.

This information comes courtesy of reports by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa.

For potential investors, this ongoing geopolitical tension could impact global markets, foreign policy, and the stability of certain investments in the region.