A Pakistani national with purported links to Iran was accused on Tuesday in a federal court in New York with organizing a conspiracy to kill US politicians and other officials on US soil.
The assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee in Butler, Pennsylvania, was unrelated to this issue, the White House clarified, despite an official being quoted by CNN as saying that former president Donald Trump and other current and former government officials were the intended victims of the plot.
The 46-year-old Asif Raza Merchant was arrested and charged in a “murder-for-hire” conspiracy as “part of a scheme to murder a US politician or government officials on US soil,” according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, “this dangerous murder-for-hire plot is straight out of the Iranian playbook and was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran.”
According to the documents, the defendant lived in Karachi and had connections to Tehran. Merchant disclosed to investigators that he had a family in Pakistan and a wife and children in Iran.
Before any sort of assault could be carried out, law officials “foiled the charged plot.” The paper further said, “Merchant is in federal custody in New York.”
But as stated in the court filings, “Merchant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and charges in the complaint are allegations.”
After spending some years in Iran, according to court filings, Merchant landed in the US from Pakistan in April 2024 and got in touch with someone he thought may help him with the plan. That individual became a trusted source for US law enforcement after reporting Merchant’s actions to authorities.
Merchant visited with the source in New York early in June, outlining his plan to have him killed. The merchant informed the individual that he would have several opportunities to execute the opportunity he had for the source. Merchant then indicated that the opportunity was connected to a killing by making a “finger gun” motion with his hand.
The merchant went on to say that the intended victims would be “targeted here,” which is to say in the United States, and gave the source instructions to set up meetings with people who Merchant might engage to do these things.
During that meeting, Merchant started preparing possible assassination plots and asked the source questions on how he would murder a victim in different situations. Merchant specifically requested the source to describe the many ways in which the victim might perish. The source was informed by the merchant that the individual would be surrounded by “security.”
The source inquired as to whether Merchant had discussed matters with the unnamed “party” that Merchant was dealing with back home. In response, he said he had and that he was instructed to “finalize” the plan and depart the US by the party back home.
Merchant met with the alleged hitmen in mid-June; they were actually US law enforcement agents operating covertly in New York. He told them he was seeking three services: document theft, political rally protest coordination, and the assassination of a “political person.”
After leaving the US, perhaps the latter week of August or the first week of September, according to Merchant, the hitmen would be given orders on who to kill.
He then started making plans to get $5,000 in cash, which he finally acquired with help from someone overseas, to give the would-be hitmen as a down payment for the killing.
After that, the merchant booked a flight and scheduled to depart the US on July 12. Before he could depart the country, though, he was taken into custody.
