Inside the Failed IRGC Plot: How Iran Tasked a Prison Network to Kill Donald Trump

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The US Department of Justice has exposed a chilling Iranian murder-for-hire plot that tasked an Afghan national with assassinating Donald Trump within a strict seven-day window. Unsealed court documents reveal that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ordered Farhad Shakeri to draft a kill plan in September, under the assumption that a post-election environment would offer an easier opening.

This sophisticated operation, involving a network of recruited ex-convicts, signals a dangerous escalation in Tehran’s ‘shadow war’ against high-level US officials on American soil.

A Prison Network Turned Lethal Weapon


Iran is using the American prison system to find people for their missions. Farhad Shakeri is the main suspect and is currently hiding in Iran. Reportedly, he used people he met while serving 14 years in a New York prison for robbery. Shakeri told his former cellmates, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt, to follow several targets. One of these targets was an Iranian-American journalist.

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“The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” stated Attorney General Merrick Garland as reported by the United States Department of Justice.

Rivera and Loadholt were paid to watch their targets at colleges and near their homes. This shows that the IRGC is willing to hire local criminals to stay hidden from US intelligence agencies.

What Does an Assassination Cost?


Shakeri’s team was promised $100,000 to watch a journalist in Brooklyn. In another plot, a man named Asif Merchant gave a $5,000 cash advance to people he thought were hitmen, but those people were actually undercover agents.

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This suggests Iran used a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system to help save money if the plot fails. Documents from a New York court say Shakeri was offered $500,000 for each of two Jewish businessmen he was told to kill. These prices range from a few thousand dollars for watching someone to half a million for a murder. Iran is using cash-strapped local criminals to achieve its agenda.

The failed plots have changed how countries deal with each other. The situation has now moved from secret plots to open military fighting. This happened after recent attacks against Iranian leaders. Now, US agencies are focusing on working on stopping foreign countries from hiring people within American prisons.