(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Days after Trump won the November 2024 election, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced that he foiled another purported Iranian assassination plot.
However, the DOJ’s case against Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera of Brooklyn; and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, didn’t charge any of them with conspiring to assassinate Trump. Instead, it accused them of plotting to kill a U.S. journalist of Iranian origin residing in the U.S.—likely, based on the government’s description, Masih Alinejad, who often appears on State Department-funded media as an outspoken critic of Iran’s government.
And now, it’s not even clear that Rivera or Loadholt knew who Alinejad was when they were allegedly stalking her for the Iranian, Shakeri. Instead, Rivera thought he was hunting someone who had stolen $250,000, according to a Monday court filing.
lol one of the defendants now says he thought he was hunting someone who stole $250,000. He's accused of participating in a plot against Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad — it looks like he had no idea who that was. https://t.co/1p2eL5HAFo pic.twitter.com/QRMMqjLE7b
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 19, 2025
The Monday court fillings states that when Loadholt and Rivera were arrested last year, Rivera told authorities about the $250,000 theft. Loadholt, for his part, didn’t talk at all.
“Initially, Rivera invoked his right to remain silent. Ultimately, however, he gave agents a detailed description of his conduct. He explained that he was hired by a man named Mohammed—who he met years ago in prison—to locate the mother of Mohammed’s children,” stated the court filing, which was made by Loadholt’s attorney.
“He told agents that Mohammed texted him a photograph of the woman, along with her home address in Brooklyn, and mentioned wanting to kill her because she had run off with $250,000. Rivera acknowledged going to look for the woman in Brooklyn and at Fairfield University, where he was told she would be giving a speech, but said that he ‘wasn’t the guy’to commit a murder.”
Loadholt’s attorney asked a court to sever his case from Rivera’s, arguing that the interview Rivera gave to police would be prejudicial to his client. In fact, the government doesn’t have any good evidence against Loadholt other than statements from his co-defendants, the lawyer argued.
“The government intends to introduce Rivera’s text messages and voice notes with Shakeri, during which Rivera repeatedly mentions the difficulty of catching Victim-1, says that kicking her door is not going to work, and asks for half of his payment up front. Presumably, the government also intends to introduce the firearm seized from Rivera’s home,” Loadholt’s lawyer said.
“None of this evidence would be relevant or admissible at a separate trial against Loadholt unless the government could establish his knowledge of, and intent to participate in, a conspiracy to commit murder.”
Meanwhile, Shakeri remains at large. It was statements that he made to the FBI which serve as the basis for Wray’s contention that they were also mulling a Trump assassination plot.
Shakeri participated in a series of phone interviews with the FBI from Iran on Sept. 30, Oct. 8, Oct. 17, Oct. 28 and Nov. 7, 2024—ostensibly trading information in exchange for a sentence reduction for the unidentified individual.
In those interviews, Shakeri ratted out Loadholt and Rivera. He also told the FBI that an IRGC official was pushing him to assassinate Trump. The Iranian official is unidentified but appears to be known to the U.S. government.
“According to SHAKERI, in approximately mid-to-late September 2024, IRGC Official-I asked SHAKERI to put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump (‘Victim-4’ herein),” the criminal complaint said.
“SHAKERI indicated to IRGC Official-I that this would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money. In response, IRGC Official-I said that ‘we have already spent a lot of money … [s]o the money’s not an issue,’ which SHAKERI understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4’s assassination.”
Shakeri further informed the FBI that the IRGC official told him on Oct. 7 that he had to provide a plan to kill Trump within seven days. Shakeri said he was unable to do so, and so Iran had paused its plans to kill Trump until after the 2024 election. If he lost, the Iranian government thought it would be easier to kill him, Shakeri said.
“During the interview, SHAKERI claimed to the FBI that he did not intend to propose a plan to murder [Trump] within the timeframe set by IRGC Official-I,” the charging papers added.
The FBI admitted in the charging papers that Shakeri is a liar, but said his claims about Trump “appear to be truthful.”
The government has yet to respond to Loadholt’s motion to sever his case.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
