The accused commander of a terrorist organization is alleged to have discussed wanting to target Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, as part of a series of attacks, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The commander, Mohammad Al-Saadi, was indicted Thursday on eight counts over allegations that he helped carry out nearly 20 attacks — and attempted attacks — across Europe, Canada and the U.S.
Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national, was extradited to New York this month to face trial, including over allegations of a plot to target a New York City synagogue. He was also charged with ordering attacks on U.S. bank branches, as well as against Jewish people in several cities across Europe.
The New York Post first reported the alleged threat against Ivanka Trump, who was a senior White House adviser during her father’s first term in office but has not been involved in his second term. She is married to Jared Kushner, who also was a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration.
According to court documents, Al-Saadi is a commander of Kata’ib Hizballah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization operating in Iraq. The organization is accused of having ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist group.
Al-Saadi is alleged to have discussed wanting to try to target Ivanka Trump in Florida in an additional attack, according to the three sources. The Justice Department did not mention those plans in Al-Saadi’s indictment or its news release about the matter.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged plot. The Secret Service, FBI and Justice Department declined to comment.
“As alleged in this indictment, Al-Saadi has been directly involved in terrorist operations and military decisions to attack U.S. and Israeli interests across the world and conspired with others to plan deadly attacks on American soil,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release Thursday.
Blanche added that the Justice Department looks “forward to vigorously prosecuting him under American law in an American courtroom.”
The Justice Department alleges that Al-Saadi “has furthered the terrorist goals” of Kata’ib Hizballah and the Revolutionary Guard since at least “in or about 2017.”
“Al-Saadi allegedly has worked closely with senior leaders of both terrorist organizations and, following U.S. airstrikes killing certain of those terrorist leaders, has directed others to exact retribution by killing U.S. citizens and U.S. political and military leaders,” the Justice Department said in a release Thursday.
