The US Justice Department on Friday unveiled criminal charges in the failed Iranian plot to kill Trump. A criminal complaint filed in court in Manhattan alleges that an officer in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) asked a man to surveil Trump and plan to kill him last September.
When a man named Farzad Shakeri was unable to come up with a plan, the official told him that Iran would put the plan on hold until after the election because it believed Trump would lose and it would be easy to assassinate him.
Shakeri absconding, likely to be in Iran
The US Justice Department has described Shakeri, 51, as an agent of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, adding that he came to the US as a child and was deported in 2008 after being charged with robbery. Prosecutors said Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.
The Justice Department said that Shakeri had met two New York residents, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, and included them in his conspiracy and prepared them to target Trump. Both Rivera and Loadholt have been ordered detained pending trial. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Judge cancels hearing deadline in Trump’s 2020 case
The judge handling the case of Donald Trump interfering in the 2020 US presidential election on Friday canceled the deadline for its hearing. Prosecutors told the court this week they needed time to assess “the appropriate course of action to proceed” in the case following Republican nominee Trump’s presidential victory.
Sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted
Last year, Trump was accused by special counsel Jack Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. However, Smith’s team is now evaluating how to wrap up the two federal cases before the president-elect takes office, given a long-standing Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents should be prosecuted. Cannot be prosecuted.
Trump got 301 electoral votes, Harris got 226 votes.
Final results are coming in from the states for the US presidential election. In which newly elected President Donald Trump has got 301 electoral votes, which is more than the 270 votes required for victory and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has got 226 votes. US media have declared Trump the winner in more than half of the 50 states, including key battleground states Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which voted Democratic in the last election.