The Justice Department says it thwarted a 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 says an unnamed official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in September told Iran’s Farhad Shakeri, 51, to “focus on surveillance and ultimately on the assassination of the former President of the United States. state, Donald J. Trump”.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. said in a statement. “The Justice Department has charged an Iranian regime asset who was tasked by the regime with directing a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE DOJ COMPLAINT (PDF)

“We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on US soil, an American journalist who was a prominent critic of the regime,” he added Garland. “We will not tolerate the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security.”

IRAN ‘TERRIFYED’ BY TRUMP PRESIDENT AS IRANIAN CURRENCY FALLS TO ALL-TIME LOW

The Justice Department says Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to be living in Iran, “immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or around 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a for robbery”.

President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Shakeri informed law enforcement that he was tasked, on October 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump,” it added.

Trump was referred to in court filings as “Victim-4.”

“According to Shakeri, during his meeting with the IRGC-I official on or about October 7, 2024, the IRGC-I official ordered Shakeri to provide a plan within seven days to kill Victim-4. during that time frame, the IRGC-I official continued, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Victim-4 until after the US presidential election because the IRGC-I official assessed that Victim-4 would lose the election and subsequently make it easier to assassinate Victim-4,” the documents say.

“(Shakeri) also stated that he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American citizens living in New York City and was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official to kill any victims. He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka,” the Department of Justice said. added.

INTELLIGENCE REPORT SAYS Iran will continue to try to kill Trump regardless of election outcome

Federal prosecutors also charged and arrested Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, “in connection with their alleged involvement in a plot to kill an American citizen of Iranian descent in New York.”

Late Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, center, attends Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s meeting with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran, Iran, in September 2016. The Justice Department said on Friday that “In accordance

A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told Fox News that the Iranian-American is Masih Alinejad.

“At Shakeri’s direction, Loadholt and Rivera spent months surveilling an American citizen of Iranian descent living in the United States (Victim-1). Victim-1 is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime and has been the target of several prior kidnapping and/or murder plots directed by the government of Iran,” the Department of Justice said. “In exchange for Shakeri’s promise of $100,000, Rivera and Loadholt repeatedly sought to locate Victim-1 for the murder.”

Prosecutors say that during their efforts to locate and kill Alinejad, “Shakeri, Loadholt and Rivera shared messages about their progress and photos related to their scheme.

“For example, in or around February 2024, Rivera and Loadholt texted about a payment received from the Shakers, then traveled to Fairfield University, where Victim-1 was scheduled to appear, and took photos on campus,” according to the Department of Justice. “In a voice memo, Shakeri told Rivera that Victim-1 spent most of her time in certain locations of her home and told Rivera that ‘you have to be patient… You have to wait and have patience to catch her either walking in the house. or go out, or follow her somewhere and take care of it. Don’t even think about entering. It’s a suicidal move.

All three suspects now face charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry maximum sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Shakeri was also charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Government of Iran, each of these being punished with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the prosecutors.

BUNDLE: GET CONTINUOUS UPDATES ON THIS STORY FROM FOXNEWS.COM

The Associated Press contributed to this report.