The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it successfully disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump in the lead-up to the election.
According to a federal court filing in Manhattan, authorities revealed that an official from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had directed a contact to plan the surveillance and eventual assassination of Trump.
The revelation came in a statement issued by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Fox News reported that Garland disclosed the Justice Department has formally charged an operative linked to the Iranian regime at the center of this assassination plot.
The operative was allegedly tasked with coordinating a network of criminal associates to carry out Iran’s directive against its targets, including Trump.
The report also noted the arrests and charges against two individuals recruited as part of this network. They were allegedly involved in a separate plot to silence and assassinate a U.S.-based journalist who has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.
In his statement, Garland confirmed the charges: “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime, who was instructed to lead a criminal network to pursue Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump. Additionally, we have charged and arrested two suspects who were recruited as part of this network to silence and murder, on American soil, a prominent U.S. journalist critical of the regime,” Garland stated.