Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged in plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.

The case disclosed by the Justice Department on Tuesday comes two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said. He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged in July 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 shooter’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 an FBI agent’s affidavit suggests Merchant had current or former high-level officials like 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.”

U.S. 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 U.S. government has since paid for security for multiple Trump administration officials, and in 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian operative in a foiled plot to kill Bolton.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a July House hearing that the Iranian government had been “extremely aggressive and brazen” in recent years, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said 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,” he said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday during an afternoon press briefing that the U.S. had 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, 46, as a Pakistani citizen who has said he has a wife and children in Iran and who traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq. A lawyer for Merchant declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Associated Press.

After Merchant’s arrest, Justice Department prosecutors urged a judge to keep him locked up, writing in a detention memo that before flying from Pakistan to the U.S., he spent approximately two weeks in Iran. “Given the seriousness of the murder for hire charges, the defendant has every incentive to flee to either Pakistan or Iran, significantly reducing the likelihood of his appearance in this case should he flee.”

He was ordered detained following a court appearance.

In Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said she saw media reports about the arrest.

“We are in touch with the U.S. authorities and await further details,” her statement read. “We have also noted the statements by U.S. officials that this is an ongoing investigation. Before giving our formal reaction, we also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question.”

Court documents trace the foiled plot to April, when Merchant flew to the U.S. to recruit participants in the scheme. He contacted a person he thought would help him but who instead alerted law enforcement. That person became a confidential source for investigators, including by introducing Merchant to the purported hitmen, officials said.

After meeting the two undercover officers posing as hitmen, the affidavit says, Merchant told them the work would be long-term. He instructed them that in addition to the killings, he would expect them to arrange protests at political rallies, steal documents and launder money for him. He told them he would return to Pakistan before giving them additional instructions.

Officials say Merchant paid a $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 affidavit.

“Yes, absolutely,” Merchant replied.

Merchant was arrested July 12, the same day he planned to leave the U.S. 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.