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, the Justice Department said Tuesday in disclosing what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to target American public figures.

Asif Merchant traveled to New York in April for the purpose of hiring hitmen, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers. He was arrested last month before he could leave the U.S. and the plot was foiled by the FBI.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets, but the case was unsealed just weeks after U.S. officials disclosed that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally last month in which Trump was injured by a gunman’s bullet.

That shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and the case also has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt. Merchant was arrested on July 12, one day before the rally where Trump was shot, and the instructions prosecutors say he gave to the men he thought he was hiring were for killings to take place in August or September — after he had left the country.

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Federal officials identified Merchant as a Pakistani citizen who has said he has a wife and children in Iran. He traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the Justice Department said.

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.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement: “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.”