Suspected of planning assassination of Trump and other top officials, Pakistani arrested in US, had ties to Iran

The Justice Department has charged a Pakistani man suspected of having links to the Iranian government with attempting to commit political assassinations, a case that prompted the U.S. government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials.

FBI investigators believe Trump and other current and former U.S. government officials were the intended targets of the plot, a U.S. official briefed on the matter said.

Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and planning with a murderer to commit assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

The merchant was arrested on July 12 as he was about to leave the United States, prosecutors said, shortly after he met with supposed killers who he believed would carry out the murders but were in fact undercover officers. The suspect is currently being held in custody.

Merchant said he targeted individuals in the United States who "are harming Pakistan and the world, (the Muslim world)," according to court documents, adding that "these are not just normal people."

The FBI investigated the alleged international assassination plot for hire in the weeks before a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man attempted to assassinate the former president at one of his rallies.

An official told CNN that investigators have found no evidence that Merchant had any connection to Butler's shooting at Trump.

The FBI believes it managed to prevent Merchant's assassination, and in the weeks since his arrest, he has cooperated with investigators, according to U.S. officials. But the Iranian government's known threats against Trump prompted the FBI to pass the intelligence to the U.S. Secret Service, which increased security protection for the former president, officials said.

As part of the plot, prosecutors say, Merchant sought people to commit the attacks, namely a woman to "make discovery" and about 25 people "who could protest as a distraction to clear the way for murder."

The plot uncovered by U.S. prosecutors adds to a growing list of detailed Iranian plans to assassinate Trump, according to national security officials.

The U.S. government has repeatedly raised concerns that Iran may try to retaliate for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by trying to assassinate Trump or his former advisers.

"We have not received any reports on this matter from the U.S. government," a spokesman for Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations told CNN when asked about the Justice Department's allegations.

"However, it is clear that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian government's policy of legally pursuing the assassin of General Soleimani."

U.S. prosecutors have charged other individuals with similar assassination attempts in the past, including charges filed in 2022 against a 45-year-old Iranian national and IRGC member who allegedly tried to pay $300,000 to an individual in the U.S. to kill former national security adviser John Bolton. In that case, prosecutors allege the plot was "likely in retaliation" for Soleimani's death.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that the U.S. "will not tolerate the efforts of an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America's national security."

The alleged attack

The businessman arrived in New York City in April, prosecutors say, and aimed to hire an assassin to carry out assassinations against officials on American soil. Although Merchant is a Pakistani national, prosecutors say he spent time in Iran and has family there.

Once in the United States, Merchant allegedly contacted someone he believed would help him in the murder-for-hire plot. That person, however, contacted the FBI and began working for investigators as a confidential source.

The businessman met with the confidential human source in early June, prosecutors say, and said he wanted to find people in New York to do three things: steal documents or USB drives from a victim's home, plan rallies at political rallies and carry out assassinations.