Pakistani national charged over foiled US assassinations plot

A Pakistani national with alleged ties to the Iranian government has been charged with plotting to carry out political assassinations on American soil. 

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Tuesday unsealed a criminal complaint against Asif Merchant, who faces one count of murder for hire.  

Merchant allegedly traveled to New York and met with undercover agents posing as hit men to discuss the plot, providing a $5,000 advance payment. Merchant said the plot would be “ongoing,” not a “one-time opportunity” and made a “‘finger gun’ motion” with his hand to indicate it would involve killing, according to the complaint. 

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland connected the foiled plot to Iran’s “brazen and unrelenting efforts” to get back at American public officials for the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. 

Soleimani was killed at the direction of U.S. officials during former President Trump’s administration. Reports surfaced shortly after an attempted assassination on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania last month that his security detail had been increased following intelligence that Tehran was plotting an assassination attempt on Trump in retaliation.

The Iranian regime denied such reports at the time.

Merchant was arrested on July 12, the day before Trump’s shooting at his rally in Butler, Pa.

“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens, and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security,” Garland said in his statement.

The Hill has reached out to Merchant’s attorney for comment. 
 
Prosecutors say Merchant traveled to the United States this April after spending time in Iran. Looking to recruit, he allegedly contacted an individual who became a confidential source for law enforcement.  
 
Charging documents state the source ultimately led Merchant to meet with two undercover agents posing as hitmen. 
 
In the meeting, he allegedly sought three services: “theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies and for them to kill a ‘political person,’” according to prosecutors.  
 
The instructions on whom to kill would come in the last week of August or first week of September, after Merchant had left the U.S., according to the complaint.  
 
Merchant arranged to leave the country on July 12 but was arrested before he could. The assassination attempt on Trump, which law enforcement has said does not appear connected to Merchant’s plot, occurred on July 13.  
 
“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.” 

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the office has seen media reports about the alleged assassination plot and is in touch with U.S. officials.

“We have also noted the statements by US officials that this is an ongoing investigation,” an unnamed spokesperson for the office said in a statement posted to its website. “Before giving our formal reaction, we also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question.”

Updated Aug. 7 at 8:30 a.m.