Iraqi National Charged With Plotting to Kill Ivanka Trump

An Iraqi national arrested in Turkey on May 15 and later extradited to the United States faces six federal terrorism counts tied to roughly 20 plots in the U.S. and Europe, according to a Justice Department release. Prosecutors allege that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, also planned to assassinate Ivanka Trump as revenge for the January 2020 drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani.

Iraqi embassy deputy military attaché Entifadh Qanbar told the New York Post that Al-Saadi spoke openly about the plan after Soleimani’s death.

“After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house.’”

Court documents state that authorities recovered a blueprint of Ivanka Trump’s Florida home. Al-Saadi also posted a map of the exclusive enclave where she and Jared Kushner own a $24 million residence, accompanied by an Arabic warning that neither palaces nor Secret Service protection would shield the family.

Federal prosecutors linked Al-Saadi to attacks on Jewish sites, including the firebombing of the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam in March, the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London in April, and a shooting at the U.S. consulate building in Toronto, also in March.

Turkish authorities arrested him on May 15 and transferred him to U.S. agents. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered him jailed pending trial in Manhattan federal court. He is currently held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Blanche said the case demonstrates that anyone targeting Americans on U.S. soil will face federal prosecution. FBI Director Kash Patel credited bureau agents and partner agencies with the capture.