by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY/EDNY Exclusive, Aug 12 – Two defendants were presented on murder for hire charges on November 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court and, as exclusively at that time reported by Inner City Press, were detained.
At midday on November 8, the SDNY US Attorney's Office announced the detention of the two, plus another man in connection with a plot to assassinate then candidate Donald J. Trump.
The complaint at Paragraph 28c recounts that "SHAKERI and CC-1 , along with others, were arrested on or about January 22, 2019, by the SLPRB in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in connection with a seizure of approximately 92 kilograms of heroin."
As exclusively noted, first on X, by Inner City Press, this is connected to a case in EDNY in Brooklyn, US v. Shawn Marshall. Not along were the same two SDNY prosecutors involved in this EDNY case - the Marshall complaint Marshall traveled to Sri Lanka that time frame. It references 91 kilos of heroin, versus 92. And the EDNY Magistrate redacted the name of "Individual 1," a citizen of Afghanistan. Complaint on Patreon here and now on DocumentCloud here
So the two cases are connected. It seems Marshall is CC-1 in the Shakeri complaint, and Shakeri is "Individual-1" in the Marshall complaint - and one surmises they are trying to flip Marshall, by charging him "only" with drugs and guns, in the District next door to which the SDNY prosecutors traveled.
On December 5 the SDNY case was indicted and wheeled out to Judge Lewis J. Liman.
On December 12 Judge Liman held a conference. Inner City Press was there, thread:
Judge Liman : How do you plead? Defendants: Not guilty. Not guilty.
AUSA: We have Apple, Google accounts. We did premises searches, found gun... These two targeted a prominent Iranian dissident. There may be CIPA litigation. The 3rd defendant remains at large.
Trial estimated at 2 weeks.
Docketed on June 26, Judge Liman set a trial for March 9, 2026: "as to Carlisle Rivera (in custody) and Jonathan Loadholt (in custody) Defendants' pretrial motions due August 18, 2025. Government responses due September 5, 2025. Defendants' replies due September 12, 2025. Motion Hearing set for September 18, 2025 at 10:30AM. Requests to charge, proposed voir dire and motions in limine due February 6, 2026. A Jury Trial is set for March 9, 2026
On August 11 Judge Liman disclosed but did not docket a pro se letter: "Defendant Jonathan Loadholt has mailed to the clerks office a document entitled motion for bail and dismissal of indictment. Under Local Criminal Rule 49.2, a defendant represented by counsel in a pending criminal case such as Mr. Loadholt may not file or submit any pro se letter, motion, or brief unless otherwise ordered by the Court. The Court has forwarded the document to Mr. Loadholt's counsel and directed that it be filed under seal and ex parte. The Court will not give the pro se letter any further consideration. (Signed by Judge Lewis J. Liman on 8/11/2025)
On August 12 counsel to co-defendant Brown wrote in to Judge Liman asking for time served on August 26.
SDNY: USA v. Shakeri, et al., 1:24-cr-670 (Liman)
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