WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, the Justice Department said on Friday.

In a statement, the department said Farhad Shakeri informed law enforcement “that he was tasked, on October 7, 2024, with providing a plan to kill” Trump, the department said. The Shakers reportedly told law enforcement that they had no plans to formulate a plan to kill Trump within the IRGC’s term.

The department described Shakeri, 51, as an IRGC asset residing in Tehran. He was said to have immigrated to the US as a child and was deported in or around 2008 following a robbery conviction. Shakeri is at large and believed to be in Iran, prosecutors said.

Two New York residents Shakeri met in prison, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, were also charged with helping Shakeri plot to kill an Iranian-American citizen in New York, described as an outspoken critic of the Iranian government that had previously been targeted. for murder.

Prosecutors have not identified the target, but he fits the description of Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who has criticized Iran’s head covering laws for women. Four Iranians were charged in 2021 in connection with a plot to kidnap her, and in 2022 a man was arrested at gunpoint outside her home.

Rivera and Loadholt were held pending trial. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Alistair Bell)