Pakistani convicted in plot to kill Trump, other US politicians on Iran’s orders

On March 6, a Pakistani national was found guilty of plotting to assassinate US President Donald Trump and other prominent American politicians two years ago on orders from Iran, the Department of Justice announced.

Asif Merchant, also known as “Asif Raza Merchant,” was accused of attempting to recruit individuals in the United States to carry out a plan to target Trump and others in retaliation for Washington’s killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, during Trump’s first term.

Federal prosecutors said the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who was running as the Republican nominee against Trump that year.

Merchant was convicted of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism at the direction of Iranian authorities, according to the Justice Department statement.

The trial, held in Brooklyn, New York, began last week, days before Trump ordered a joint US-Israeli strike on Iran that escalated into the region’s largest conflict in years.

Merchant admitted involvement in the plot alongside Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) but claimed he acted under duress to protect his family in Tehran.

By Jeyhun Aghazada