Man on trial in assassination plot says possible targets included Trump, Biden, Haley

The allegation sounded like something out of a spy movie: A Pakistani businessman attempted to hire hitmen, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill an American politician on behalf of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard paramilitary.

That was true, and potential targets of the 2024 plan included current President Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate and ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley, the man told jurors at his attempted terrorism trial in New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were motivated by fear for his loved ones in Iran, and he believed he would be apprehended before the project achieved anything.

“My family was under threat and I had to do this,” the accused, Asif Merchant, said through an Urdu interpreter. “I didn’t want to do it so willingly.”

Merchant said he expected to be arrested before anyone was killed, that he intended to cooperate with the U.S. government and hoped that would help him obtain a green card.

American authorities were indeed on alert – the hitmen he had paid were actually undercover FBI agents – and he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Merchant did participate in voluntary interviews with the FBI, but ultimately ended up with a lawsuit and not a cooperation agreement.

“You traveled to the United States with the intention of hiring mafia members to kill a politician, correct?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta, in turn, questioning Merchant on Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.

“That’s true,” Merchant replied, his demeanor as matter-of-fact as his testimony was unusual.

The trial comes amid the less than week-old war in Iran, which killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a strike that Trump summed up as: “I got him before he got me.” Jurors are asked to ignore news relating to the case.

The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.

Merchant, 47, had a banking career of around 20 years in Pakistan before launching into various businesses: clothing, car sales, banana exports, insulation imports. He openly has two families, one in Pakistan and the other in Iran – where, he said, he was introduced around late 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence agent. They first talked about getting involved in a hawala, an informal money transfer system, Merchant said.

Merchant said his periodic visits to the United States for his clothing manufacturing business sparked interest in his contact with the Revolutionary Guard, who trained him in counter-surveillance techniques.

The United States considers the Revolutionary Guards a “foreign terrorist organization.” Formerly called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, this force played an important role in Iran under Khamenei.

Merchant said the manager told him to look for U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. Then came another mission: find a criminal to organize protests, steal things, launder money, “and maybe have someone murdered,” Merchant recalled.

“He didn’t tell me exactly who it was, but he told me: He named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley,” he added.

After U.S. immigration agents arrested Merchant at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his belongings and asked questions about his travels to Iran, they concluded he was under surveillance. But he still researched the locations of Trump rallies, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hitmen and scraped together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a “token of appreciation.”

He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations — false, Merchant said — tucked into a book he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries.

Merchant said he “had no choice” but to play along because the manager indicated he knew who Merchant’s Iranian parents were and where they lived.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors noted that Merchant did not ask law enforcement for help with his alleged predicament before his arrest. He testified that he could not turn to the authorities because his master was being watched by people.

Prosecutors also said that during his interviews with the FBI, Merchant “failed to mention any facts that could have supported” the argument that he acted under duress.

Merchant told jurors Wednesday that he didn’t think the agents would believe his story because their questions suggested “that they think I’m some kind of super-spy.”

“And are you a super-spy?” » asked defense attorney Avraham Moskowitz.

“No,” Merchant said. “Absolutely not.”