The Iranian government’s ‘asset’ who helped to orchestrate a plot to assassinate Donald Trump weeks before the Presidential election confessed his plan to the FBI on five separate phone calls – but he’s still walking free.
Farhad Shakeri is on the loose in Tehran despite having five conversations with the FBI between September and November this year detailing his involvement in the plot.
Shakeri, 51, immigrated to the United States as a child from Afghanistan, but was deported in 2008 after serving a 14-year prison sentence in New York for robbery.
The FBI have had five high-stakes discussions with Shakeri over the phone in the span of two months. Bureau officials have not revealed why Shakeri volunteered so much explosive information to them.
The Iranian government’s ‘asset’ who helped to orchestrate a plot to assassinate Donald Trump weeks before the Presidential election confessed his plan to the FBI on five separate phone calls – but he’s still walking free
Pictures released by the Justice Department after the thwarted attempt on Trump’s life
The first recorded phone call took place on September 30, followed by October 8, October 17, October 28 and November 7.
He gave up his co-accused, Carlisle ‘Pop’ Rivera, in one of those calls and detailed how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps enlisted him to murder Trump after learning he had connections in America.
Iran does not have an extradition agreement with the United States and tensions remain at an all time high between the two nations.
American authorities therefore have no legal means to order Shakeri to return to the United States or give himself up to face punishment.
Shakeri told authorities he met a senior member of the Revolutionary Guard through his work in Tehran in the ‘oil and fuel businesses.’
The man was referred to by others around him as Majid Soleimani, but Shakeri said he has no way of knowing whether the man is connected to late Iranian military officer Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated under Trump’s watch in 2020.
When Majid learned that Shakeri used to live in New York, he offered him a large sum of money to investigate – and ultimately kill – Iranian-American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad.
When Majid learned that Shakeri used to live in New York, he offered him a large sum of money to investigate – and ultimately kill – Iranian-American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad (pictured)
Trump has been a target of Iran assassination threats since he ordered the strike that killed Soleimani, the leader of the brutal Iranian Quds Forces, Qassem Soleimani (pictured)
In his initial calls with the FBI, Shakeri denied that he agreed to have Alinejad killed, and said he merely offered his services to have her investigated.
By his last correspondence with authorities on November 7, he accepted that he had enlisted a former prison buddy, Carlisle Rivera, to kill her.
According to the criminal complaint seen by DailyMail.com, Rivera was waiting on a $100,000 payment from the IRGC to carry out the assassination.
But Shakeri said by mid-late September, this IRGC official had told him to ‘put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and ultimately assassinating, Donald Trump.
Shakeri warned Majid that such a feat would cost ‘a huge amount of money’, and said he was reassured that ‘money is not an issue.’
Trump rises from the stage with his fist in the air after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July
Trump assassination attempt pictures released by the government
On or about October 7, Shakeri was given a seven-day deadline to devise a thorough plan to carry out the assassination attempt.
He was told if he could not come up with a plan in this timeframe, the attempt would be put on the back burner until after the election, because officials in Iran assumed Trump would lose the election and then have less protection.
In September, the Trump campaign revealed it had been briefed on the threat from Tehran.
‘Big threats on my life by Iran,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘The entire US military is watching and waiting.
‘Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again.’
Questions have been raised about whether an effort is underway to also secure the arrest of Shakeri, given his involvement in the plot.
Shakeri allegedly paid Rivera and Loadholt $1,000 to surveil Alinejad at a speaking engagement at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. This screenshot showed the details for the event, a photo of her, and a money order for $500 to be paid to Rivera
One of the photos allegedly taken by Rivera and Loadholt during the surveillance
Shakeri met Rivera in prison while he was serving time for robbery in the first degree and Rivera was in for second degree murder.
He also enlisted the help of another former inmate, but that person was not named in the criminal complaint and instead was identified as ‘co-conspirator one.’
Co-conspirator one helped to locate and investigate Ms Alinejad. He and Shakeri are long-time associates. After they were both released from prison, they were arrested in January 2019 together in Sri Lanka following the seizure of 92 kilograms of heroin.
The disturbing documents unsealed by the Department of Justice revealed the arsenal of weapons the wouls-be assassins had at their disposal and the texts messages they sent each other to concoct their plan.
Shakeri, Rivera and their co-accused, Jonathan Loadholt shared frightening voice messages, urging patience and detailing how they would follow their targets.
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Prosecutors also laid out how Iran is using overseas agents to actively target Americans on U.S. soil for kidnapping and murder.
Their aim is to try and silence dissidents critical of the regime, as well as hit back at Qassem Soleimani’s death.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that there are ‘few actors’ in the world that ‘pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran.’
‘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.’
‘We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime. We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.’
