WASHINGTON – A Pakistani man believed to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, the Justice Department said Tuesday in releasing what authorities say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to originate. abroad to reach the American public. figures.
Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June to meet with men he thought he could recruit to commit the murder, even paying a $5,000 advance to two alleged killers who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal authorities said. . He was arrested last month as he prepared to leave the US and after telling the men he would give further instructions, including the names of intended targets, in August or September after his return to Pakistan.
Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But US officials acknowledged last month what a threat Donald Trump’s Life in Iran created additional security in the days before a rally in Pennsylvania in which Trump was wounded by a gunman’s bullet. That shooting on July 13thThe attack, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iranian threat and Merchant’s arrest is not linked to the attempted assassination of Trump, a law enforcement official said.
But the recently unsealed criminal complaint suggests that Merchant may have had high-level officials like Trump in mind. He told an associate who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement that he wanted a “political person” killed, the complaint said, mapping out on a napkin the different scenarios in which the target could be murdered and warning that there would be security.” around” the person.
US authorities have warned for years about Iran’s desire to avenge the 2020 assassination of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This attack was ordered by Trump when he was president. Since then, the US government has paid for the security of several Trump administration officials, and in 2022, the Department of Justice charged an Iranian agent in a foiled plot to kill former national security advisor John Bolton.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a Hearing in the Chamber last month that the Iranian government has been “extremely aggressive and brazen” in recent years, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that “we hope these threats continue and that these cases are not the last.”
“The Department of Justice will spare no resources to disrupt and hold accountable those who would carry out Iran’s lethal plot against Americans,” he said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday during an afternoon press briefing: “We have been monitoring Iranian threats against former politicians.”
“We consider this a national and internal security issue of the highest priority. We have met repeatedly at the highest levels of our government to develop and implement a comprehensive response,” she said.
Federal authorities identified Merchant as a Pakistani national who said he had a wife and children in Iran and who traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the Justice Department said. An attorney for Merchant declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by The Associated Press. He appeared in court last month in Brooklyn and was detained.
Court documents trace the foiled plot to last April, when Merchant flew to the U.S. to recruit participants in the murder-for-hire scheme. He contacted a person who alerted authorities, and that person became a confidential source for investigators, including introducing Merchant to the alleged killers, prosecutors said.
Last month, according to the complaint, he was introduced to two undercover officers who were posing as hit men. Prosecutors say he told them the work would be long-term and that he would likely travel to Pakistan before giving them further instructions.
Authorities say Merchant paid a $5,000 advance for the planned murders.
“Now we know we are going forward. We’re doing it,” one of the alleged killers said, according to the complaint.
“Yes, absolutely,” Merchant replied.
Merchant was arrested on July 12, the same day he planned to leave the US. Prosecutors say a search of his wallet turned up a handwritten note that included code words he had used to communicate with individuals he thought were killers.
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