- Iran allegedly recruited kill teams to assassinate Donald Trump in 2024 plots
- Two US-based hitmen linked to Iran were caught for plotting to kill Trump
- Farhad Shakeri recruited hitmen under IRGC orders to plan Trump assassination
Over a week into the US and Israel's unilateral declaration of war on Iran and the assassination of its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, reports have emerged linking Tehran to alleged plots to kill President Donald Trump.
Two failed plots, both from 2024, show how the Iranian regime allegedly recruited “kill teams” for the purpose of killing Trump, The New York Post reported.
In one of the plots, Iran allegedly ordered a spy to recruit a “kill team” and plot to assassinate Trump while he was still campaigning for the 2024 presidential election. The man recruited two US-based hitmen for the same, who were both caught later.
One of them, Asif Raza Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, was found guilty last week of plotting to assassinate Trump or other US officials in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani by an American strike in 2020, prosecutors said.
"They are absolutely killers, like the mafia. They have a list of the people they want dead and they have dispatched many of their spies to arrange to kill them," Yigal Carmon, a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel, told New York Post.
Inside The Plots To ‘Assassinate Trump'
In 2024, the US Justice Department charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps to kill Trump. Called an IRGC asset residing in Tehran, Shakeri recruited two individuals from New York- Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, and Jonathon Loadholt, for his plot.
As per court documents, Shakeri told an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official that it “would cost a huge amount of money to kill Trump. In response, the official said, “We have already spent a lot of money … so the money's not an issue,” which Shakeri took to indicate that the Iranian regime had already spent a lot of money on plots to kill Trump and was willing to do so again.
Not just that, Shakeri was ordered to come up with a plan within seven days to kill Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. If he failed to do so, the IRGC official said that the elite military force would pause its plan to kill Trump until after the election, as he would lose the polls then and would be easier to kill.
Shakeri told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he did not propose to give a plan to kill Trump within the timeframe. While he remained in Iran and was tried in absentia in the matter, Shakeri's co-conspirators were found guilty of murder-for-hire.
As per the NY Post, Riviera was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Loadholt will be sentenced next month.
Shakeri was "hunted down and killed” by the US military, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed during a press briefing last week.
In another case, Asif Raza Merchant testified during his trial on Wednesday that he was forced into the plot to kill Trump to protect his family in Tehran from the IRGC, adding that he thought he would get caught before anyone was killed, reports revealed.
Merchant, who was arrested in 2024, revealed that he was never ordered to kill a specific person, but his Iranian contact mentioned three people in connection with the plot -- Trump, former US President Joe Biden and ex-United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley. Merchant could face life imprisonment after being convicted of transnational terrorism and murder for hire.
