Would-be assassin gets 15 years for NYC plot against Iraninan-American journalist

A federal judge gave a would-be assassin the maximum 15 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to kill an Iranian American writer on behalf of Tehran after hearing the woman who was targeted describe multiple attempts on her life as threats against all Americans.

Judge Lewis J. Liman said Carlisle Rivera’s written conversations as he plotted to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn in 2024 were “chilling” and he inflicted “great harm” on her and her husband.

Addressing the court, the couple described how assassination plots forced them to limit interactions with their children as they frequently changed residences and dodged threats from an unrelenting Iran.

“I’m just a woman,” Alinejad said. “My weapon is my voice. My weapon is my social media.”

She urged the judge to give Rivera the maximum sentence to send a message to anyone “targeting U.S. citizens on U.S. soil” and to “protect unarmed people like me now facing massacre in my country.”

People in Iran, Alinejad said, are “facing guns and bullets … to protect the global security,” including for Americans.

Before the sentence was announced, Rivera, 51, told the judge: “I’m deeply sorry for my actions.”

Outside the Manhattan federal courthouse, Alinejad said the United States must be careful to not let indiscriminate killings happening in Iran spread to the U.S. As she spoke she held up a computer tablet and showed reporters video clips of body bags of some of the thousands of Iranians killed during recent protests.

Alinejad said she hoped President Donald Trump would go after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei like he did Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was seized in a January U.S. military raid and brought to face drug trafficking charges in New York. He has pleaded not guilty.

“I am calling on President Trump. Take action. Removing terrorists is not tragedy. It’s a sign of justice,” Alinejad said. She added, however, that she does not want Iran bombed — just the removal of its leaders.

She noted that U.S. authorities have said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was responsible for not only multiple plots against her life but also a plot against Trump.

Alinejad left Iran in 2009 following the country’s disputed presidential election and moved to the United States, where she launched online campaigns to encourage Iranian women to pose for pictures and videos showing their hair in defiance of a religious rule requiring headscarves.

An author and contributor to the Voice of America and CBS News, Alinejad became a citizen in 2019. She has traveled the world speaking to women and encouraging others to join her movement for women’s freedom of expression, particularly those in Iran.

Last year she testified at the trial of two men charged with plotting to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home and kill her in 2022. A prosecutor said Iran put a $500,000 bounty on her head. The defendants, both natives of Azerbaijan, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years.

In November 2024 the Justice Department accused Tehran of authorizing a murder-for-hire plot against Trump days before he won reelection. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson reportedly denied the allegation. The person who tried to hire killers to go after Trump also organized the plot against Alinejad, authorities said.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection. Trump’s first administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

In court Wednesday, a prosecutor said Rivera was supposed to surveil Alinejad’s planned February 2024 appearance at Fairfield University in Connecticut, an event that was canceled. Afterward, according to court papers, Rivera tried for months to surveil Alinejad at a Brooklyn home where she no longer lived.

During a break in the proceeding, Alinejad approached Rivera’s fiancee, who sobbed as she hugged Alinejad, telling her: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Outside the courthouse afterward, Alinejad said she told the woman: “I said, ‘I’m fighting for you, I’m fighting for all Americans … when I asked President Trump to try to get the killers.’”