- Prosecutors link plot to Iranian authorities.
- Merchant says he acted to protect family.
- Plot tied to Soleimani killing, says prosecutors.
WASHINGTON: Pakistani national Asif Merchant was convicted on Friday in the United States over a plot to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent American politicians allegedly directed by Iran, according to the US Department of Justice.
Merchant admitted during the trial that he joined the plot with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but told the court he had acted unwillingly and only to protect his family in Tehran.
Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington’s killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, when Trump was in his first term.
Targets in the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump that year for the Republican presidential nomination, federal prosecutors said.
Merchant was convicted of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries,” directed by the Iranian authorities, the DOJ said in a statement.
The trial in the New York City borough of Brooklyn started last week, days before Trump ordered an assault on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region’s biggest war in years.
Merchant said he was never ordered to kill a specific person but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations in the Iranian capital.
Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 to help with the plot reported his activities and became a confidential informant, the DOJ said.
Merchant was arrested and pleaded not guilty that year. Tehran has denied accusations that it targeted Trump or other US officials.
