New Delhi: A Pakistani national, Asif Merchant, was convicted Friday of plotting to kill US President Donald J. Trump and other prominent American politicians on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran.
“Merchant was a trained operative of the Iranian government’s global terrorist force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He admitted at trial that in 2024 the IRGC sent him to the United States to arrange for political assassinations, but law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
The statement added: “Merchant arrived in the United States in April of 2024, met with purported hitmen in June—who were in fact undercover US law enforcement officers in New York—and was placed under arrest before leaving the country in July of 2024. Merchant faces up to life in prison.”
The Pakistani national began working for the IRGC in late 2022 or early 2023, and was trained in intelligence tradecraft, including counter-surveillance techniques. In late 2023, he sought to identify potential recruits for the IRGC, while travelling extensively to Iran to meet and plot with his handler.
In 2024, he returned to the US with the goal of arranging the assassination of American politicians including Trump, then President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Nikki Haley, according to federal prosecutors. Merchant is originally from Karachi.
The IRGC’s motivation to carry out the plot was the killing of its former commander Qaseem Soleimani in 2020 by Trump, the Department of Justice said. As a part of his efforts, Merchant reached out to an acquaintance to secure hitmen to carry out the plan, and the acquaintance informed federal law enforcement agencies in the US of the plot.
“In early June, Asif Merchant met the CS (confidential source) in New York and explained his assassination plot. Merchant told the CS that he had an ongoing opportunity for him and then made a finger gun motion with his hand, indicating that the opportunity was related to a killing. Merchant further stated that the intended victims would be “targeted here” in the United States. Merchant instructed the CS to arrange meetings with individuals whom Merchant could hire to carry out these actions,” said the US Department of Justice.
The statement added: “In mid-June, Merchant met with the purported hitmen, who were in fact undercover US law enforcement officers (the UCs) in New York. Merchant advised the UCs that he was looking for three services from them: Theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies and for them to kill a “political person” in the United States.”
Following the meeting with the purported hitmen, Pakistani national Asif Merchant began arranging a payment of $5,000 in advance for the plot to kill US politicians. After paying the $5,000 advance, Merchant made plans to leave the country.
On 12 July 2024, Merchant was arrested by the US law enforcement agencies before he could leave the country. He was convicted of terrorism and murder-for-hire charges by the US federal court in New York Friday.
The conviction comes amidst a conflict between the US and Iran. Washington launched strikes on Tehran along with Israel 28 February, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US in 2019 during Trump’s first tenure designated the IRGC as a terrorist entity. The IRGC forms a central pillar of Iran’s security apparatus and was developed as a key player for the stability of Iran under the rule of Khamenei. The force has helped train a number of armed militias in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza strip.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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