A Pakistani national who federal authorities say has ties with Iran entered a not guilty plea in federal court to charges that he attempted to arrange a murder-for-hire as part of a scheme to assassinate current or former U.S. officials.
Asif Merchant, who also is accused of plotting to commit an act of terrorism, was ordered detained pending trial at a federal courthouse in New York City on Monday. He entered his plea to one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy ordered that Merchant, who federal prosecutors say spent time in Iran before heading to the United States, be detained pending trial.
Federal prosecutors say Merchant came to the United States to recruit people for the alleged plot. He told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said.
The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have not said whether the suspect was specifically targeting Trump. Court papers unsealed to the public also do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were carried out.
The agent wrote that the Iranian regime has “publicly stated its desire and intention to conduct operations targeting those perceived to be enemies of the Iranian regime,” including Americans and U.S. officials who were specifically involved in the airstrike that killed Iranian intelligence official Qassem Soleimani, which was authorized by the Trump administration in early 2020.
Case Background
Merchant arrived in the United States in April after his visit in Iran, allegedly reaching out to a confidential source who could assist him in killing a former or current U.S. government official, according to the FBI affidavit. The person who he contacted then reported his statements to law enforcement. Merchant later met with undercover FBI agents who claimed to be hit men.Before his arrest, Merchant allegedly paid $5,000 to the so-called hit men. One of them told him, “Now we’re bonded,” to which the suspect replied, “Yes.”
“Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” the undercover official told him, according to court papers. In response, Merchant allegedly said, “Yes, absolutely.”
Iranian diplomats said in August that it’s the policy of Tehran to legally prosecute the killing of Soleimani and that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court documents doesn’t align with that policy.
FBI Director Christopher Wray described it differently in a Sept. 11 statement, describing the plot as being “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook.”
“A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a serious threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI,” Wray said. “Protecting Americans from terrorists remains our highest priority.”
There are no indications that Merchant was tied to an assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday or an assassination attempt targeting the former president at a July rally in Pennsylvania. The suspects identified in those cases, respectively, are Ryan Wesley Routh and Thomas Matthew Crooks.
No motive has been ascribed to either Routh, who is currently in federal custody, or Crooks, who was shot and killed by a Secret Service countersniper team soon after he opened fire at the rally.
