The United States on August 6 charged a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran in connection with a foiled murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government officials in the United States.
The U.S. Justice Department identified the suspect as Asif Merchant, 46, who is in U.S. custody. The department did not name the politician whom the suspect allegedly wanted to assassinate, but said in a news release that law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out.
A criminal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn, New York, on August 6 said Merchant sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, a former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC’s) elite Quds Force, who was assassinated in January 2020.
Then-President Donald Trump approved the drone strike on Soleimani. Iran has repeatedly vowed revenge for the high-profile killing.
Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in Brooklyn.
An individual Merchant contacted in April to help assist with the plot reported his activities to law enforcement and became a confidential informant, according to the complaint, the Justice Department news release said. Merchant instructed the informant to arrange meetings with individuals whom Merchant could hire to carry out the assassination and other acts.
Merchant met in June with the would-be hitmen, who were in fact undercover U.S. law enforcement officers.
Merchant said he had received instructions to "finalize" the plan and leave the United States from the unidentified "party" he had been working with. He told the undercover agents that they would receive instructions in either the last week of August or the first week of September after he had departed the United States.
Merchant subsequently made flight arrangements and planned to leave the United States on July 12. Law enforcement agents placed him under arrest before he could leave the country. The complaint said a federal judge ordered Merchant detained on July 17.
Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee in the November 5 presidential election, was wounded on July 13 in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said that investigators have found no evidence that Merchant had any connection to the attempt on Trump's life. Investigators have said the shooting, which wounded Trump in his right ear, was carried out by a lone 20-year-old gunman.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York said Merchant "planned the murder of U.S. government officials on American soil" working on behalf of others overseas.
"This prosecution demonstrates that this office and the entire Department of Justice will take swift and decisive action to protect our nation’s security, our government officials, and our citizens from foreign threats."
The FBI is investigating the case. Merchant has said that he has a wife and children in Iran and a wife and children in Pakistan. Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer for Merchant, did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.