WASHINGTON, DC - Headline USA reports that last Friday, the Justice Department indicated they are ready to keep classified information secret in the case of the Pakistani man indicted for allegedly trying to hire two hit men to kill President-elect Trump in an Iranian state-sponsored assassination plot.
Asif Merchant attempted to hire two purported hit men to take out Trump, however, they were actually two undercover FBI agents introduced to him by one of their informants. As was seen in the “attempted kidnapping” case of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer several years ago, the assassination “plot” seems rather dubious. The case gives the appearance that Merchant was “an unwitting dupe in an FBI sting operation,” Headline USA reported.
The evidence being withheld by the Justice Department would appear to prove if Merchant was a legitimate assassin or an FBI dupe, which lends suspicion to the “facts” of the case. The fact the Justice Department is attempting to withhold the information only adds to those who believe this is another case of the FBI using underhanded tactics to pursue someone. After the lengths the FBI went to indict any Trump supporters within a mile of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is it any wonder why there is some suspicion of their motives in this case?
In a Friday motion, the Justice Department said it intends to exercise Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act, which permits the government to keep state secrets…secret even if they negatively impact the rights of a criminal defendant.
Courts have ruled that CIPA “provides a means for applying the state-secrets privilege to classified information which, in ordinary circumstances, would be discoverable. Proper application of that privilege requires balancing of the government’s need to protect national security with the right of a defendant to mount a full defense,” the DOJ’s motion read.
As part of the CIPA procedure, “a court must balance the government’s national security interest against the defendant’s right to present his defense,” Justice Department prosecutors argued in their motion.
The DOJ requests a pretrial conference on Jan. 6, 2025, to schedule the government's filing of motions to sequester evidence via CIPA, Headline USA wrote.
This is not the first time the DOJ has attempted to use CIPA to keep government scandals from the public eye.
In March 2020, former Venezuelan Gen. Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones was charged with participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy with that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. The DOJ alleged that Corfdones conspired with Maruro, other top Venezuelan regime officials, and members of Colombia’s Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia to ship cocaine to the US.
The only issue was that Cordones said he was a CIA asset who participated in a failed coup against Maduro in March 2018, a color revolution facilitated by the CIA. Cordones sought to prove that in court in 2022.
“Cordones’ activities were communicated at the highest levels of a number of U.S. government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Treasury Department, the National Security Council, DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), and DOJ,” Cordones’ attorneys argued in a Feb. 2022 motion.
“Such evidence casts doubt on the government’s theory of prosecution and, to the extent the government is able to prove such a conspiracy, would support a defense of withdrawal from any such conspiracy.”
The Justice Department invoked Section 4 of CIPA in response to Cordones’ motion, and Judge Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York approved it. Hellerstein ruled that the “disclosure of the classified materials…to the defense of the public could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Accordingly, it is ordered that the government motion is granted, and the classified materials…need not be disclosed to the defense.”
Cordones pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 260 months in April.
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