Chilling details released on the Iranian plot to murder president-elect Donald Trump

The Justice Department filed criminal charges Friday in a thwarted plot linked to Iran to kill then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump before Tuesday's presidential election, which Trump won.

According to the complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard ordered his contact, Farjad Shakeri, in September to hatch plan to kill Trump.

You can read the complaint here:

The complaint said if Shakeri wasn't able to create such a plan, the operation would be paused until after the presidential election. According to the complaint, the unnamed official thought Trump would lose and it would be easier to carry out a plot to kill him.

Shakeri told the FBI the official asked for a proposal in seven days, which was a timeframe he was not able to meet.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.

Foreign policy expert Dr. Walid Phares said Friday that this act against the president-elect is an act of war.

"They are targeting Donald Trump. There is no doubt about it," he said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.

Documents show that Shakeri had a “network of criminal associates” while in a New York prison to give Iranian officials operatives to plot assassination attempts on their behalf.

Other memos show Shakeri worked with two co-conspirators to keep an eye on targets that Iranian officials wanted to assassinate, according to CNN.

The outlet reports that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps requested Shakeri help plan a shooting that would have targeted Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.