By Raul Castillo
06 Aug 2024, 18:43 PM EDT
Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, used hitmen to plot to assassinate a politician (probably former President Donald Trump) or a U.S. government official, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement that Merchant, 46, is in custody in that city after authorities arrested him on July 12, when he was about to leave the country, and thwarted his plans.
The FBI believes former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump was targeted, CNN reported. However, no evidence has been found linking Merchant to the attempted assassination of Trump last month at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Investigations revealed that Merchant allegedly arrived in the United States from Pakistan in April 2024, after spending time in Iran. Once in New York, the suspect contacted a potential accomplice to carry out his plans, who would end up going to the authorities and becoming an informant.
The defendant’s plans to the informant were to steal documents from his target’s home, stage a protest and “kill a politician or government official,” an act that would occur once he had left the U.S. and that he would coordinate with coded messages.
Merchant met with the alleged hitmen he had hired – who were undercover agents – in mid-June, paid them in advance and indicated that they would receive instructions on whom to kill in the last week of August or the first week of September.
According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the plot “sounds like something out of the Iranian playbook.”
For his part, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that for years the Justice Department has been “working aggressively to counter the blatant and relentless efforts of retaliation against American public officials for the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.”
The White House is aware
The White House did not confirm reports linking the Pakistani to an attempt to assassinate Trump, but said the US has been “monitoring” Iranian threats against American politicians.
“We have been very clear in stating that these threats stem from a desire on the part of Iran to avenge the death” of Soleimani in 2020, “we consider (these threats) to be a matter of national security of the highest priority,” insisted spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
Last month it was revealed that weeks before the attack on Trump in Pennsylvania, the Secret Service had been alerted by the White House of an Iranian plot against the former president, which led to its security being reinforced.
Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told EFE that Iran has been threatening US officials for years in revenge for the attack ordered by Trump in 2020, which resulted in the death of Soleimani, former head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani rejected the claims, calling them “malicious” and “baseless.”
With information from EFE.
Keep reading:
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– Iran responds to accusations of plot to kill Trump
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