Headline Roundup • November 8th, 2024
DOJ Charges Iranian Man for Plot to Assassinate Trump
Summary from the AllSides News Team
An Iranian agent told U.S. officials he was instructed to "focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump."
The Details: The revelation appeared in a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in New York on Friday, which accuses Iran of also targeting activist Masih Alinejad for assassination. The complaint charges 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri with aiding a terrorist group. The complaint says Shakeri "immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or about 2008" after being imprisoned for crimes. Two Americans were also charged and are in custody.
For Context: During his first term, Trump withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran and ordered a drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, prompting Iran to strike at American troops; none were injured. U.S. officials in August said Iran had hacked the Trump campaign.
How the Media Covered It: The New York Times (Lean Left bias) and Fox News (Right) highlighted Alinejad's case, describing attempts by the defendants to catch her leaving her home. Fox didn't give context on Trump's adversarial relationship with Iran. Wall Street Journal (Center) noted that Shakeri volunteered the information detailed in the complaint "in an effort to get a reduced sentence for another federal defendant."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
Iranian agents plotted to assassinate Donald Trump before he was re-elected as president, the Justice Department revealed Friday in a case that underscores the barrage of security threats Trump faces even before he takes office.
An Iranian operative told law enforcement that an official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard directed him in September to set aside his other duties and assemble a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said in court papers.
The operative, identified as Farhad Shakeri, warned the official that crafting such a plan would cost...
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Justice Department says it has thwarted an Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the election.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City says an unnamed official in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had asked Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, in September to "focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump."
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,"...
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Friday that Iranian plotters had discussed a plan to assassinate Donald J. Trump before he was re-elected as president this week.
One of the plotters said that he was assigned in September to carry out the plan by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, the prosecutors said in court papers.
An Iranian operative said he was told to put aside other efforts he was undertaking on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards and “focus on surveilling, and ultimately, assassinating” Mr. Trump, according to a criminal...
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