NEW YORK, NY - A Pakistani businessman tried to hire hit men, giving them $5,000 in cash, all in an attempt to kill a U.S. politician on behalf of Iran's powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden, and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man, Asif Merchant, told jurors during his attempted terrorism trial on Wednesday, March 4, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Merchant insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he'd be apprehended before anything came of the scheme. "My family was under threat, and I had to do this," he testified through an Urdu interpreter. "I did not want to do this willingly."
Merchant said he had anticipated getting arrested before anyone was killed, intended to cooperate with the U.S. government, and had hoped that would help him get a green card.
"You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta asked during her turn questioning Merchant on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court. "That's right," Merchant replied.
U.S. authorities, however, were on to him. The supposed hit men he paid were actually undercover FBI agents, and Merchant was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Merchant did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but he ultimately ended up with a trial, not a cooperation deal. His trial is unfolding amid the less-than-week-old Iran war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, summed up by President Trump as, "I got him before he got me." The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.
Merchant had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before getting involved in an array of businesses, including car sales, clothing, banana exports, and insulation imports. He openly has two families. One in Pakistan and the other in Iran, where he said he was introduced around the end of 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative.
Merchant testified that his periodic visits to the U.S. for his garment business piqued the interest of his Revolutionary Guard contact, who trained him on countersurveillance techniques.
The U.S. deems the Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization." Formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the force has been prominent in Iran under Khamenei.
Merchant said the handler told him to see U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. There came another assignment: Look for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, "and maybe have somebody murdered," Merchant recalled during his testimony.
"He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me — he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley," he added.
After U.S. immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his possessions, and asked about his travels to Iran, he concluded that he was under surveillance. He still, however, researched Trump rally locations, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hit men, and scrambled together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a "token of appreciation."
He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations tucked into a book that he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries. Merchant said he had "no other option" than to play along because the handler had indicated that he knew who Merchant's Iranian relatives were and where they lived.
Prosecutors noted that Merchant didn't seek out law enforcement to help with his purported predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he couldn't turn to authorities because his handler had people watching him.
Prosecutors also said that in his FBI interviews, Merchant "neglected to mention any facts that could have supported" an argument that he acted under duress. On Wednesday, Merchant told jurors that he didn't think agents would believe his story because their questions suggested: "they think that I'm some type of super-spy."
"And are you a super-spy?" defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked. "No," Merchant said. "Absolutely not."
Potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden, and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man, Asif Merchant, told jurors during his attempted terrorism trial on Wednesday, March 4, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Merchant insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he'd be apprehended before anything came of the scheme. "My family was under threat, and I had to do this," he testified through an Urdu interpreter. "I did not want to do this willingly."
Merchant said he had anticipated getting arrested before anyone was killed, intended to cooperate with the U.S. government, and had hoped that would help him get a green card.
"You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta asked during her turn questioning Merchant on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court. "That's right," Merchant replied.
U.S. authorities, however, were on to him. The supposed hit men he paid were actually undercover FBI agents, and Merchant was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Merchant did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but he ultimately ended up with a trial, not a cooperation deal. His trial is unfolding amid the less-than-week-old Iran war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, summed up by President Trump as, "I got him before he got me." The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.
Merchant had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before getting involved in an array of businesses, including car sales, clothing, banana exports, and insulation imports. He openly has two families. One in Pakistan and the other in Iran, where he said he was introduced around the end of 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative.
Merchant testified that his periodic visits to the U.S. for his garment business piqued the interest of his Revolutionary Guard contact, who trained him on countersurveillance techniques.
The U.S. deems the Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization." Formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the force has been prominent in Iran under Khamenei.
Merchant said the handler told him to see U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. There came another assignment: Look for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, "and maybe have somebody murdered," Merchant recalled during his testimony.
"He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me — he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley," he added.
After U.S. immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his possessions, and asked about his travels to Iran, he concluded that he was under surveillance. He still, however, researched Trump rally locations, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hit men, and scrambled together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a "token of appreciation."
He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations tucked into a book that he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries. Merchant said he had "no other option" than to play along because the handler had indicated that he knew who Merchant's Iranian relatives were and where they lived.
Prosecutors noted that Merchant didn't seek out law enforcement to help with his purported predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he couldn't turn to authorities because his handler had people watching him.
Prosecutors also said that in his FBI interviews, Merchant "neglected to mention any facts that could have supported" an argument that he acted under duress. On Wednesday, Merchant told jurors that he didn't think agents would believe his story because their questions suggested: "they think that I'm some type of super-spy."
"And are you a super-spy?" defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked. "No," Merchant said. "Absolutely not."
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