JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The Justice Department announced charges today against a man who allegedly was directed by Iran's government to drop a plan to assassinate Donald Trump ahead of this week's election. Federal prosecutors say the defendant was also involved in other murder-for-hire schemes targeting U.S. citizens on American soil. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this. He's here in the studio. Hey, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: So, Ryan, there's a lot going on here. Start by telling us about this lead defendant.
LUCAS: So his name is Farhad Shakeri. Court papers say that he's an Afghan national, that he came to the U.S. as a kid but was later deported as an adult after he did time in prison in New York state for robbery, and he apparently now lives in Iran. And his background made him interesting and useful to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. Prosecutors say that because of his time in prison in the U.S., Shakeri developed a network of criminal associates, and Iran's government turned to him and this network in the U.S. to conduct surveillance and even try to assassinate critics and enemies here on American soil.
Now, the alleged targets that Iran gave Shakeri include, as you mentioned, Donald Trump, but also an Iranian American journalist and activist in New York, as well as two Jewish American business people in New York as well. As for the charges, Shakeri and two co-defendants face a number of them, including murder for hire and money laundering conspiracy. Shakeri is not in U.S. custody - important to say that. He's believed to be in Iran, but his two co-defendants are in American hands.
SUMMERS: Got it. OK, so there's a list of alleged Iranian targets, including now-President-elect Trump. What can you tell us about the alleged plot against Trump?
LUCAS: Not a whole lot - this is a 26-page criminal complaint. There are two paragraphs in there about Trump. But what it says is that this September, an official with the Revolutionary Guard in Iran told Shakeri basically to drop everything that he was doing and to focus on surveilling and assassinating Trump. Shakeri's response in that, according to court papers, was basically, that's going to cost you a lot of money. The Iranians allegedly told him, don't worry about it. Iran has spent money trying to kill Trump before, and it was willing to spend more money to get the job done. Then in early October, court papers say, Shakeri was instructed to draw up a plan to kill Trump before the U.S. election, but if that wasn't possible, Iran would put this idea on hold until after the U.S. vote.
SUMMERS: And Ryan, we should just be clear here. It doesn't sound like this is related to the two assassination attempts that we saw against Trump. Is that right?
LUCAS: That's correct. The FBI has said so far that there's no indication that those two assassination attempts we saw this summer are linked to Iran or any foreign actors.
SUMMERS: So Ryan, do prosecutors say whether Iran is still trying to assassinate Trump?
LUCAS: Court papers don't say. All that they say is that Shakeri told the FBI that he didn't intend to come up with a plan to kill Trump within the time frame that he was given. But look, Iranian officials have publicly stated before that they want to kill Trump, but not just Trump, also other U.S. officials who were involved in a drone strike in 2020 that killed a top Iranian general. This is about revenge. What this case shows is that Iran was still looking for ways to get at Trump up through this week's election.
SUMMERS: OK. So, obviously, Trump is the headline here, but other Americans were also allegedly targeted. What can you tell us about those plots?
LUCAS: Right. Shakeri was allegedly offered half a million dollars to murder two Jewish American business people, the ones I mentioned earlier in New York. But the plotting was most advanced in their alleged attempt to murder an Iranian American activist and journalist also in New York. Her name is Masih Alinejad. I have reported extensively on Iran's previous attempts to kidnap her or kill her, and now we now have a second assassination attempt by Iran on her life. All of this is part of what the Justice Department says is Iranian government's efforts to silence critics and opponents around the world, including on U.S. soil.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ryan Lucas, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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