More than a week after the US and Israel declared war on Iran and eliminated its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, fresh reports have emerged alleging
Iranian plots targeting President Donald Trump. According to a report by The New York Post, two separate plots in 2024 were allegedly orchestrated by Tehran to assassinate Trump. Investigators say the plans involved recruiting operatives and assembling "kill teams" to target the then presidential candidate. In one alleged scheme, Iranian handlers reportedly instructed a spy to put together a team to eliminate Trump while he was still campaigning for the 2024 election. The operative went on to recruit two men based in the US as hitmen. Both were eventually apprehended. One of them, Asif Raza Merchant, a Pakistani national alleged to have links with Iran, was convicted last week. Prosecutors said the plan was tied to retaliation for the US strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
The ‘7-Day’ Plot
Another alleged plot came to light after the US Justice Department charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, over a plan prosecutors say was directed by IRGC. Shakeri, described as an IRGC asset living in Tehran, allegedly recruited two men from New York - Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, and Jonathon Loadholt - for the mission.
Court documents suggest that Shakeri informed an IRGC official that it "would cost a huge amount of money to kill Trump". The response, according to investigators, was blunt: "We have already spent a lot of money … so the money's not an issue."
Shakeri interpreted the message to mean that the Iranian regime had already invested significant resources.
Prosecutors say Shakeri was given a strict timeline - he was ordered to develop a plan within seven days to assassinate Trump during the 2024 campaign. If the plan failed, the IRGC official reportedly said the operation would be paused until after the election.
Shakeri later told the FBI that he never provided such a plan within the deadline. While he remained in Iran and was tried in absentia, his alleged accomplices were prosecuted in the US.
According to The New York Post, Rivera has already been sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Loadholt is expected to be sentenced next month.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Shakeri himself had been "hunted down and killed” by the US military.
