Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national who allegedly has ties with Iran, was arrested last month for allegedly plotting to carry out killings of an unidentified politician or US government officials on American soil. Former President Donald Trump was one of those individuals who Asif Merchant viewed as a possible target, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
However, there’s no evidence that Asif Merchant’s plan had any connection to last month’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, another person told the news agency.
According to the US Justice Department, Asif Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States - in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani.
“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 US citizen, is a threat to our national security,” FBI director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
Who is Asif Merchant?
- According to court documents, Asif Merchant is a Pakistani national. Media reports said that he was born in Karachi in around 1978.
- Asif Merchant has a wife and children in Iran, and another family in Pakistan, the FBI said.
- According to his travel records, Asif Merchant frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the US Justice Department said.
- According to the FBI, Asif Merchant arrived in the US from Pakistan in April 2024 and contacted a person he believed could assist him with his assassination plots.
- He then met with the man, who later reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source, in June in New York and explained his plan.
- “Merchant told the source that the opportunity he had for him was not one-time and would be ongoing - making a ‘finger-gun’ motion with his hand indicating it was regarding a killing,” the FBI said in a statement.
- Merchant further told the source (the alleged hitman) that the intended victims were in the US, adding that his plot involved multiple criminal schemes such as stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home, planning a protest, and killing a politician or government official.
- Merchant told the alleged hitman that the assassination would occur after he left the United States and he would communicate with him from overseas using code words, the FBI said.
- According to the FBI statement, Merchant had plans to get an official killed either in the last week of August or the first week of September.
- On June 21, Merchant with the hitmen and paid $5,000 to carry out the plots. Subsequently, he made flight arrangements and planned to the leave US on July 12. However, the law enforcement agents arrested him before he could leave.