Iran 'ordered hitman to kill Donald Trump' during US election run, bombshell charges show

A plot to kill Donald Trump has been revealed by the unsealing of US court documents charging a man who claimed he was tasked by an Iranian government official with assassinating the president-elect before this week's election.

Investigators uncovered the plot to kill Mr Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national identified by officials as an Iranian government asset deported from the US after being imprisoned on robbery charges.

Shakeri told investigators a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard ordered him in September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Mr Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in a court in Manhattan.

Two other men, who the authorities said were recruited to take part in other assassinations - including a prominent Iranian American journalist - were also arrested on Friday. Shakeri remains in Iran.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement: "There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran."

The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Mr Trump's election victory, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials in the United States.

Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot.

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