Pakistani National Found Guilty in US of Planning Iran-Led Assassinations of Senior Politicians
A Pakistani man was convicted Friday of plotting to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent American politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran, the Justice Department said.
Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the United States in a scheme targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington’s assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, when Trump was in his first term.
Targets of the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump that year for the Republican presidential nomination, federal prosecutors said.
Merchant was found guilty of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries” directed by Iranian authorities, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The trial in New York City’s Brooklyn borough began last week, days before Trump ordered an attack on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region’s largest war in years.
Read: Pakistan urges Iran to avoid attacks in Gulf
Merchant admitted to joining the plot with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but testified that he did so reluctantly to protect his family in Tehran.
Merchant said he was never ordered to kill a specific person, but that his Iranian interlocutor named three people during talks in the Iranian capital.
Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 to help with the plot reported his activities and became a confidential informant, the DOJ said. Merchant was arrested and pleaded not guilty that year.
The Revolutionary Guard plays a central role in Iran, with a combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. Tehran has denied accusations that it attacked Trump or other US officials.
US and Israeli strikes since Saturday have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and injured thousands, according to Iran’s ambassador to the UN. Many senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been killed.
The US military has said six of its members were killed in an attack on a facility in Kuwait, while Israeli counts show at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel.
