Government spokesmen later backed away from the coup plot theory, saying the conspiracy was only aimed at assassinating government leaders and bombing strategic installations.
VOA: standard.2009.05.25
If you look it up in the dictionary, one definition for the word has it as a synonym for an underhand plot or conspiracy.
Tahawwur Rana, 52, was convicted in June 2011 of conspiracy to provide material support in the plot against the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten newspaper and of providing material support to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e Tayyiba-terror organization.
And the fact of the matter is that the United States disrupted a conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in a plot that was directed by elements of the Iranian government.