Pakistani man who wanted to assassinate Trump charged

A Pakistani man, identified as Asif Merchant has been charged with attempted murder.

Merchant was arrested last month on charges he plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and multiple other public officials, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

The case disclosed by the Justice Department is the latest murder-for-hire plot originating from abroad to target American public figures, coming two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

Merchant was said to have traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said.

He was arrested last month as he prepared to leave the U.S. and after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged last month that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally in which Trump was injured by a gunman’s bullet.

That July 13 shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and Merchant’s arrest has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt, a law enforcement official said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday during an afternoon press briefing that the U.S. had been “tracking Iranian threats against former politicians.”

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. We have repeatedly met at the highest levels of our government to develop and implement a comprehensive response,” she said.

Federal officials identified Merchant, 46, as a Pakistani citizen who has said he has a wife and children in Iran and who traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq.

A lawyer for Merchant declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Associated Press.
After Merchant’s arrest, Justice Department prosecutors urged a judge to keep him locked up, writing in a detention memo that before flying from Pakistan to the U.S. “the defendant had spent approximately two weeks in Iran.

Given the seriousness of the murder for hire charges, the defendant has every incentive to flee to either Pakistan or Iran, significantly reducing the likelihood of his appearance in this case should he flee.”

He was ordered detained following a court appearance.

Officials say Merchant paid a $5,000 advance for the planned killings.

“Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” one of the purported hitmen said, according to the affidavit.

“Yes, absolutely,” Merchant replied.

Merchant was arrested July 12, the same day he planned to leave the U.S. Prosecutors say a search of his wallet found a handwritten note that included code words he had used to communicate with the individuals he thought were hitmen.