A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil, the Justice Department said on Tuesday in disclosing what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot originating from abroad to target American public figures.
Asif Merchant travelled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting men he thought he could recruit to carry out the killing, even paying a US$5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover police officers, federal officials said. He was arrested last month as he prepared to leave the US and after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the name of the 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 that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally in which Trump was injured by a gunman’s bullet. That July 13 shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and Merchant’s arrest has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt, a law enforcement official said.
But the newly unsealed criminal complaint suggests Merchant may have had high-level officials such as Trump in mind. He told an associate who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement that he wanted a “political person” to be killed, the complaint said, mapping out on a napkin the different scenarios in which the target could be assassinated and warning that there would be security “all around” the person.
US officials have warned for years about Iran’s desire to avenge the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. That strike was ordered by Trump when he was president. The US government since then has paid for security for multiple Trump administration officials, and in 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian operative in a foiled plot to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said at a House hearing last month that the Iranian government had been “extremely aggressive and brazen” in recent years, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Tuesday that “we expect that these threats will continue and that these cases will not be the last”.
“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” Wray said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday during an afternoon press briefing, “We’ve been tracking Iranian threats against former politicians.”
“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. We have repeatedly met at the highest levels of our government to develop and implement a comprehensive response,” she said.
Federal officials identified Merchant as a Pakistani citizen who has said he has a wife and children in Iran and who travelled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the Justice Department said. A lawyer for Merchant declined to comment Tuesday when reached by Associated Press. He appeared in court last month in Brooklyn and was ordered held.
Court documents traced the foiled plot to last April, when Merchant flew to the United States to recruit participants in the murder-for-hire scheme. He contacted a person who alerted police, and that person became a confidential source for investigators, including by introducing Merchant to the purported hitmen, prosecutors said.
Last month, according to the complaint, he was introduced to the two undercover officers posing as hitmen. Prosecutors say he said that the work would be long-term and that he would most likely travel to Pakistan before giving them further instructions.
Officials say Merchant paid a US$5,000 advance for the planned killings.
“Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” one of the purported hitmen 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 found a handwritten note that included code words he had used to communicate with the individuals he thought were hitmen.
