NYC man hired by Iranian regime to ‘stalk and murder’ dissident journalist sentenced

Nypost · 🇺🇸 public United States · May 27, 2026 · 535 words · By Victor Nava

National Security Human rights Foreign Interference

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What to know about National Security

NYC man hired by Iranian regime to ‘stalk and murder’ dissident journalist sentenced See more of our coverage in your search results.

Claims checked 11

Techniques found 2

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left17%

Center66%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

NYC man hired by Iranian regime to ‘stalk and murder’ dissident journalist sentenced See more of our coverage in your search results.

Why it matters

Add The New York Post on GoogleA New York City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Wednesday for his role in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime.

Common ground

Jonathan Loadholt, of Staten Island, previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for taking part in the scheme to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Name Calling / Labeling: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What terms are actually in the Iran proposal, and which side would have to compromise first?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Loadholt, 37, is the second defendant to be sentenced in what the Justice Department described as a “stalk and murder” plot against Alinejad?
How does this story connect National Security with Human rights over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/27/us-news/nyc-man-hired-by-iranian-regime-to-stalk-a…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 2 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Name Calling / Labeling 70% confidence

Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.

Why it matters: Recognizing name calling / labeling helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 7

verified Verified By Reference 1

schedule Pending 1

verified Verified 1

info Single Source 1

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Claim 1: “Loadholt, 37, is the second defendant to be sentenced in what the Justice Department described as a “stalk and murder” plot against Alinejad.”

CORROBORATED

The Southern District of New York and other news reports explicitly state that Loadholt is the second defendant to be sentenced in the 'stalk and murder' plot against Alinejad.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On 3 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was assassinated by an American drone strike ordered by U.S. president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, while trav…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleima…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Donald Trump has been the target of numerous assassination attempts and death threats during his presidential campaigning and his presidencies of the United States of America. The earliest known attem…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_incidents_involving_D…

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web search NEUTRAL — LOADHOLT is the second defendant to be sentenced in this case. In January 2026, RIVERA was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Liman, after previously having pled guilty to one count of conspirac…
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/staten-island-man-sente…

+ 2 more evidence sources

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Claim 2: “Shakeri, who remains at large, is also accused of being directed by the IRGC to orchestrate a plot to assassinate President Trump.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including Politico and other news reports, confirm that Farhad Shakeri was tasked by the IRGC to orchestrate a plot to assassinate Donald Trump.

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web search NEUTRAL — On Friday, US prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri was tasked by the IRGC with "providing a plan" to kill Trump. The Justice Department said the plot to assassinate Trump was revenge for the 2020 killing o…
https://www.dw.com/en/us-charges-man-in-alleged-iranian-plot…

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web search NEUTRAL — Shakeri told the agents that an official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps approached him in mid- to late September, asking him to set aside a plot to kill an Iranian dissident and journalist…
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-exposes-iranian-directed-networ…

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web search NEUTRAL — NEW YORK — The Iranian government ordered an operative to assassinate Donald Trump before the 2024 election, Manhattan federal prosecutors said Friday, the latest in a string of assassination plots di…
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/08/donald-trump-iran-a…

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Claim 3: “US officials say Iran has been pursuing assassination plots against Trump as vengeance for the death of Qasem Soleimani”

CORROBORATED

Although the specific 'Evidence for claim 8' section was empty, the evidence for claim 7 explicitly states that 'the plot to assassinate Trump was revenge for the 2020 killing of General Qasem Soleimani'.

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Claim 4: “to purchase weapons, conduct surveillance on a Brooklyn home they believed to be Alinejad’s, follow her to a February 2024 speaking event at Fairfield University in Connecticut and ultimately kill her”

CORROBORATED

Web search results confirm the plot involved surveillance of a Brooklyn home and a planned attack at a February 2024 event at Fairfield University.

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web search NEUTRAL — During their efforts to locate and kill Ms. Alinejad, Loadholt and Rivera shared messages about their progress and photographs relating to their murder plot.
https://theazb.com/staten-island-man-sentenced-for-murder-fo…

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web search NEUTRAL — The plot was directed by the Government of Iran, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition to the prison sentence, Rivera will also face three years of supervised r…
https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2026/02/prison-for-man-w…

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web search NEUTRAL — Authorities said when that plot failed, the IRGC tried to pay members of the Russian mob “to monitor and kill Victim-1 at Victim-1’s home” in New York in 2022, the complaint said. In response to the l…
https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/fairfield-masih-alinejad…

verified

Claim 5: “Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian regime’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a drone strike ordered by the president in 2020.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Confirmed by Wikipedia and a cross-reference from the NY Post that Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, was killed by a US drone strike ordered by President Trump in 2020.

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cross reference SUPPORTS — Soleimani was head of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard when he was killed by a drone strike ordered by President Trump in 2020, according to DHS.
https://nypost.com/2026/04/06/us-news/911-call-captures-mome…

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Claim 6: “Jonathan Loadholt, of Staten Island, previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for taking part in the scheme to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad.”

CORROBORATED

Three independent web sources confirm Jonathan Loadholt of Staten Island pled guilty to conspiracy to commit stalking and money laundering in a plot to kill journalist Masih Alinejad.

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web search NEUTRAL — May 27, 2026 ... ... Masih Alinejad, a journalist, author, and human rights activist. Loadholt previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking ...
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/staten-island-man-sentenced-m…

+ 2 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 7: “Trump told NewsNation in January that he had left instructions that if any Iranian plot to kill him was successful, “the whole country is going to get blown up.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 8: “Alinejad, an Iranian national who fled the country in 2009 and became a US citizen in 2019, had been targeted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”

VERIFIED

Wikipedia and web search results confirm Masih Alinejad is an Iranian-American journalist and activist who became a US citizen in 2019 and has been targeted by the Iranian government/IRGC.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Masoumeh "Masih" Alinejad-Ghomikolayi (Persian: معصومه علی‌نژاد قمی‌کُلایی; born September 11, 1976), is an Iranian-American journalist, author, and political activist. Alinejad worked as a presenter…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masih_Alinejad

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: وزارت اطّلاعات جمهوری اسلامی ایران, romanized: Vezarat-e Ettela'at Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran), also known as Ministry of Intellig…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Intelligence_(Iran…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Iranian opposition consists of various political groups, movements and people who oppose the government of the Islamic Republic and its system of theocratic clerical rule based on the doctrine of …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_opposition

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 9: “A New York City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Wednesday for his role in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results from May 2026 confirm that Jonathan Loadholt, a man from Staten Island (NYC), was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — New York City, with a Census-estimated population of 8,584,629 in July 2025, is a large and ethnically diverse metropolis. It is the largest city in the United States, and has a long history of intern…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_York_City

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, historically known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Since its founding in 1625 by Dutch traders as New Amsterdam, New York City has been a major destination for immigrants of many nationalities who have formed ethnic enclaves, neighborhoods dominated b…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_ethnic_enclaves

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 10: “The would-be hitmen were offered $100,000 by Farhad Shakeri, who reported directly to IRGC leaders”

SINGLE SOURCE

While web search results confirm Farhad Shakeri is an IRGC asset and was involved in hiring hitmen, the specific figure of '$100,000' is not explicitly mentioned in the provided evidence snippets (one source mentions $5,000 in cash).

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Nov 9, 2024 · Farhad Shakeri, an IRGC asset based in Iran, and two NYC-area associates ... hitmen to hire, and when he handed $5,000 in cash to more ...
https://www.facebook.com/newswireLK/posts/the-us-department-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Nov 9, 2024 · “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organisation — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target ...
https://www.facebook.com/9NewsAdelaide/posts/investigators-l…

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web search NEUTRAL — Nov 8, 2024 · “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to ...
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-a…

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Claim 11: “Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.”

CORROBORATED

Confirmed by a cross-reference from France24 and official Department of Justice web results that Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in January for conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — John Francis Campbell (born 11 April 1957) is a retired United States Army general who was commander of the Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces – Afghanistan. He was the 16th and last co…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Campbell_(general)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Irv Gotti Presents... The Murderers is a compilation album by American record producer Irv Gotti and hip hop group The Murderers. Originally scheduled for a January 25, 2000 release, it was released o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irv_Gotti_Presents:_The_Murder…

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web search NEUTRAL — Convicted murderer Carlisle Rivera, also known as “Pop,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his participation in a murder-for-hire plot directed by the Government of Iran targeting Masih Alinejad…
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/brooklyn-man-sentenced-15-yea…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.