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US and Israeli forces took out the Iranian official behind a plot to assassinate President Trump in the final days of the 2024 election campaign, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed Wednesday.
Hegseth did not identify the individual, but Israeli media named him as Rahman Mokadam, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) special operations division.
“The leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon during a morning debrief on Operation Epic Fury.
“Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.”
According to federal prosecutors, the IRGC tasked Afghan national Farhad Shakeri in September 2024 to “focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump.
When Shakeri told his unidentified IRGC handler that the Trump plot would “cost a ‘huge’ amount of money,” court documents said, the Iranian responded: “We already spent a lot of money … [s]o the money’s not an issue.”
US officials say Iran has been pursuing assassination plots against Trump as vengeance for the death of Qasem Soleimani, head of the country’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a drone strike ordered by the president in 2020.
Back in 2022, a chilling video animation was posted on then-Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website showing what appeared to be a drone or bomber looming over Trump while he was out playing golf.
“Revenge is Definite,” appeared on the screen at the end of the video.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist since 1989, was killed in strikes Feb. 28, alongside dozens of other top Iranian officials.
“They tried twice,” Trump later boasted to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “Well, I got him first.”
In a phone conversation with an FBI agent, Shakeri, who did time in US prisons for robbery, said the Iranian official told him on Oct. 7, 2024, to have a plan in place to kill Trump “within seven days.”
If Shakeri did not meet his deadline, the contact allegedly said the hit on Trump would be postponed until after the election, because Tehran officials believed that the Republican nominee would lose “and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate [him].”
The complaint also charged Brooklyn native Carlisle Rivera and Staten Islander Jonathan Loadholt with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy.
Shakeri, who is believed to be in Iran and out of the reach of American justice, was also charged with conspiring to violate US sanctions against Iran, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to the same.
The complaint detailed that Shakeri emigrated to the US as a child, but was deported in 2008 after serving a 14-year prison sentence for robbery.
During his time behind bars, Shakeri met Rivera and Loadholt, later recruiting them to be hitmen, according to the complaint.
The feds said Shakeri initially tasked his cohorts with killing Iranian American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the Tehran regime who had been targeted for assassination in the past.
Rivera and Loadholt pursued Alinejad for nine months, surveilling her Brooklyn home and planning to watch her speak at Fairfield University in Connecticut, according to the complaint.
At one point, Rivera allegedly complained to Shakeri: “This b—h is hard to catch, bro.”
Iran offered Shakeri $1.5 million to kill Alinejad and, in turn, he promised Rivera and Loadholt $100,000 to carry out the dastardly deed, the complaint states.
Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and was sentenced in January to 15 years in federal prison.
Loadholt is due to be sentenced in April after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
This past January, Trump told NewsNation that he had left instructions that if any Iranian plot to kill him was successful, “we’re going to blow the — the whole country is going to get blown up.”
English (US)