Trump has previously been briefed by intelligence officials about the potential threat to his life and said in September that if he were president and another country threatened a US presidential candidate, it would risk being “blown to smithereens”.
“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know,” he said at an event in North Carolina.
In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, a food cart vendor passes a billboard showing assassinated leaders including Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh, General Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.Credit: Getty Images, digitally tinted
Iran has previously denied wanting to kill Trump, or that it is targeting US citizens.
However, according to court documents, prosecutors allege that Shakeri – who took part in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally asked by the Revolutionary Guard to carry out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens in the US.
This changed on October 7, when they told him to focus only on Trump, giving him seven days to formulate an assassination plan. Shakeri told investigators that if he could not come up with a plan within a week, they would wait until after the election.
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Had the alleged assassination attempt been carried out before this week’s historic election, it would have been the third attempt on Trump’s life in almost as many months.
The 78-year-old was almost killed at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July when a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, grazing Trump’s right ear.
In September, another man was arrested after the Secret Service spotted him with a rifle outside the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach.
Shakeri, who is believed to be at large in Tehran, was charged with “murder for hire”, alongside two other men he met while serving time in a US prison for robbery: New York residents Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36.
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The two American citizens were arrested in New York and are accused of helping the Iranian government surveil a separate US citizen of Iranian origin, known only in the indictment as Victim 1. This is believed to be Irainian-American activist Masin Alinejad.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – a designated foreign terrorist organisation – has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on US soil and that simply won’t be tolerated,” said FBI director Christopher Wray.
Murder-for-hire comes with a maximum jail term of 10 years. Shakeri has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the government of Iran, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.