(DailyChive.com) – Weeks before the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, a Pakistani national connected to Iran was caught before carrying out an intended plot against several American officials, a hit list that may have included the former president.
According to a court complaint filed by federal prosecutors, 46-year-old Asif Raza Merchant was working with a hitman in New York City to plan a series of assassinations to be carried out sometime in August or September. The complaint claims that Merchant traveled to New York to work with the hitman and that the targets of the plot were high-ranking American government officials and that Trump may have also been a potential target.
On Friday, July 12, authorities arrested Merchant as he tried to return to Iran, where he told investigators he had a wife and children; Merchant also said he had a wife and kids in Pakistan. He was caught as part of an undercover sting operation in which the assassins were undercover FBI agents, according to FBI New York Field Office Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie Curtis. He was charged with “murder-for-hire” on Tuesday, Aug. 6, for traveling to New York City to take part in a larger “scheme” to assassinate US officials or politicians on US soil by trying to hire a hitman to carry out the killings.
Eastern District of New York Attorney Breon Peace said that Merchant worked “on behalf of others overseas” and that the plan involved murdering US government officials. Breon added That the prosecution demonstrated that the New York Eastern District Attorney’s office and the Justice Department would “take swift and decisive action” to protect US national security and its citizens and officials “from foreign threats.”
Curtis said that Merchant’s case underscored the “dedication and formidable efforts” of the FBI’s agents, as well as the DOJ’s “analysts and prosecutors” in both New York and Texas. He said “neutralizing” Merchant as a threat prevented what would have been a “tragic outcome” had he succeeded and that it “reaffirms” the agency’s “commitment.”
Along with Curtis and Peace, the arrest and charges were announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ National Security Division Matthew Olsen. A federal source told reporters that politicians targeted by Merchant’s plot were on both sides of the political aisle and not connected to the attack on Trump in Pennsylvania.
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