A Pakistani national allegedly tied to Iran has been arrested and charged in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, according to the Justice Department.
Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was accused by the DOJ of a murder-for-hire scheme to assassinate a “politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil,” with one U.S. official clarifying that Trump was one of the intended targets.
Prosecutors say Merchant was seeking men to commit the actual assassinations, a woman to do “reconnaissance,” and about 25 people “who could perform a protest as a distraction after the murder occurred.”
From CNN:
Merchant arrived in New York City in April, prosecutors say, and aimed to hire a hit man who would carry out assassinations against officials on US soil. Although Merchant is a Pakistani national, prosecutors say he spent time in Iran and has family there.
Once in the United States, Merchant allegedly contacted someone who he believed would assist him in the murder-for-hire plot. That person, however, contacted the FBI and began working for investigators as a confidential source.
Merchant met with the confidential human source in early June, prosecutors say, and said that he wanted he wanted to find people in New York to do three things: steal documents or USB drives from one victim’s home, plan protests at political rallies and carry out assassinations. Merchant allegedly told the confidential human source that the work was not a one-time opportunity and made a “finger gun” motion with his hand.
Merchant was arrested trying to leave the U.S. shortly after meeting the purported hitmen he thought would carry out the assassination but who turned out to be undercover officers.
Notably, Merchant was arrested on July 12 — the day before the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania — but prosecutors say he had no connection to that incident.
According to court documents, Merchant wanted to target individuals he believed were “hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world,” adding that “these are not just normal people.”
A lawyer for Merchant denied that he was cooperating with authorities, calling the claim “inaccurate” and “irresponsible.”
The top leadership of the DOJ and FBI released statements Tuesday condemning Merchant’s alleged plot to kill Trump.
“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“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.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray likewise stated, “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
“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,” he added.
This comes as the intelligence agencies have been repeatedly warning that Iran may try to retaliate for Trump’s 2020 drone strike that killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Gen. Qasem Soleimani by trying to kill Trump or his former advisers.
Infowars founder Alex Jones cautioned against taking the DOJ’s arrest of Merchant at face value, asserting, “This is cover for the next deep state attack.”
This is cover for the next deep state attack https://t.co/Xt43zSV6wO
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) August 6, 2024
Read the DOJ’s criminal complaint: