A Pakistani man linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was convicted on Friday in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, for plotting to assassinate US politicians, including US President Donald Trump, after travelling to the United States in 2024 to recruit hitmen for the killings.
Prosecutors said the accused, Asif Merchant, 47, was an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to a press release by US Department of Justice.
He was arrested in Texas in July that year.
Who was behind Trump’s assassination attempt?
“Merchant admitted at trial that the IRGC sent him to the United States to arrange for political assassinations and steal documents, but law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out. Merchant arrived in the United States in April of 2024, met with purported hitmen in June-who were in fact undercover US law enforcement officers in New York-and was placed under arrest before leaving the country in July of 2024. Merchant faces up to life in prison”, reads a press release from the US Department of Justice.
Trump, Biden and Nikki Haley were targets
During the trial, Merchant told jurors that his handler in Iran had given him three potential targets, then US president Joe Biden, president Donald Trump and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, according to a Bloomberg report.
He was convicted of attempted terrorism and a murder-for-hire charge.
According to prosecutors, Merchant tried to hire hitmen to kill a US politician at a political rally after entering the country. The prosecution also presented testimony from an FBI informant who secretly recorded meetings with Merchant.
Iran, IRGC behind Trump’s assassination attempt?
Merchant testified in his own defence, saying he went along with the plot to protect his family in Iran and intended to eventually reveal the plan to US authorities. His lawyer argued that he never planned to carry out the attack and was pretending to participate in the assassination scheme to keep his family safe.
Trial evidence and testimony, including Merchant’s own statements, showed that he began working for the IRGC in Pakistan in late 2022 or early 2023 and received training in tradecraft, including countersurveillance.
Later in 2023, he travelled to the United States to look for potential IRGC recruits who could remain in the country.
Merchant testified that he knew the IRGC was a designated terrorist organisation and said he repeatedly travelled to Iran to meet his handler during this period.
Merchant entered US to hire a hitman
In 2024, Merchant was sent back to the United States with a new mission: to recruit “Mafia” members to steal documents, stage a protest and arrange the killing of one of three specific US politicians or government officials.
To carry out the plan, Merchant contacted an acquaintance in New York, Nadeem Ali. In early June, Merchant met Ali in New York and described the assassination plan. He told Ali that he had an opportunity for him and made a “finger gun” gesture, indicating the task involved a killing.
He also explained that the plan involved three separate criminal acts: stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home, organising a protest and killing a politician or government official.
Arrested while leaving US
Merchant said the assassination would take place after he left the United States and that he would communicate instructions from overseas using coded language.
When Ali asked if he had consulted the unidentified “party” he was working with, Merchant said he had and that the person had told him to “finalize” the plan and leave the country. Merchant later testified that the “party” was his IRGC handler.
Merchant later booked flights to leave the country on July 12, 2024. On that day, law enforcement agents arrested him before he could depart the United States.
