The United States has charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, the Justice Department said.
Farhad Shakeri told police “that on October 7, 2024, he was tasked with providing a plan to assassinate” Trump, the statement said. It said Shakeri told police he did not intend to formulate such a plan within the timeframe set by the IRGC.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a statement carried by Iranian media on Saturday that the claim was a “repugnant” plot by Israel and the Iranian opposition outside the country to “complicate matters between America and Iran.”
The Justice Department described Shakeri, 51, as a member of the Revolutionary Guards who lives in Tehran. It states that he immigrated to the U.S. as a child and was deported around 2008 after a robbery conviction. Shakeri is at large and is believed to be in Iran, prosecutors said.