A Pakistani national with connections to Iran has been federally indicted in New York for orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. government officials.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges on Tuesday, highlighting the severity of the plot and the international ties of the accused.
Asif Merchant, the accused, initially contacted a confidential source under the guise of selling clothing in the U.S. However, Merchant’s true intent emerged when he paid the source $5,000 to hire hitmen, who were actually undercover FBI agents. This proactive measure by the FBI successfully thwarted the assassination plan before any harm could be inflicted.
The indictment details a multi-faceted plot, which included:
- Stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home.
- Planning a protest.
- Assassinating a politician or government official.
Merchant’s communication with the confidential source revealed his motive:
“People who will be targeted are the ones who are hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world. These are not normal people.”
Despite this statement, Merchant did not specify any particular government officials as targets.
Merchant has familial ties in both Iran and Pakistan, with wives and children in each country. He had planned to leave the U.S. before the execution of the assassination attempt but was apprehended before he could flee.
This indictment comes in the wake of a recent attempt on the life of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
Although the shooter, Matthew Crooks, had no known connections to Iran, the threat against Trump was reportedly in retaliation for his 2020 order to kill Qassem Soleimani, a high-ranking official in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
In response to the threat, the Secret Service increased their presence at the July 13 rally.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stressed the Justice Department’s commitment to safeguarding national security, stating:
“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.”
