New York — Pakistani employer I tried to hire professional killers He was convicted on Friday of killing an American politician in a trial Allegations of an Iranian-backed conspiracy On American soil.
as Iran war And in the Middle East, Asif Merchant admitted in a US court that he sought to carry out an assassination during the 2024 presidential campaign – a plot that was quickly foiled by US investigators before it had a chance to move forward.
A Brooklyn jury convicted Merchant on terrorism charges and murder-for-hire charges. He faces a life sentence.
The ruling came after just two hours of deliberations following a week-long trial that included fascinating testimony from Merchant himself.
The trader told the jury that he was following instructions from a powerful contact in the Islamic Republic Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to the trader, the handler never identified a target but floated names including the then-candidate Donald Trumpthen-president Joe Biden and Nikki Haleya former ambassador to the United Nations who has also been in the race for some time.
The Iranian government denied trying to kill American officials.
The emerging conspiracy collapsed after Merchant showed an acquaintance what he had in mind using him Things on a napkin To film a shooting at a march. He asked the man to help him hire assassins. Instead, he was introduced to undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as an acquaintance had done.
Merchant told the alleged killers he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and paid them $5,000 in cash in a car parked in Manhattan.
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — and instead was met with the might of American law enforcement,” US Attorney Pam Bondi said in a statement issued after the conviction.
The merchant’s lawyer, Avraham Moskowitz, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Merchant, 47, worked in Pakistani banks for decades before turning to the clothing industry and other businesses. He had two families, in Pakistan and Iran, and would occasionally visit the United States to work in the clothing industry.
Merchant testified that he met an IRGC intelligence agent about three years ago. Merchant said the contact gave him training and assignments in counter-surveillance, including an assassination plot.
He stressed that he had to carry out his handler’s orders to protect his loved ones in Iran. The defendant said he reluctantly followed these suggestions but believed he would be arrested and explained his situation to authorities before anyone was killed.
“I was agreeing to it,” he said, speaking in Urdu through a translator in court.
Prosecutors stressed that Merchant admitted to taking steps to activate the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the United States considers a foreign terrorist organization, and did not proactively approach the authorities.
Instead, he was preparing to travel to Pakistan He was arrested On July 12, 2024, one day before an unrelated incident Trump assassination attempt (Butler, Pennsylvania). Officials said it appears the Butler gunman acted alone They were tracking A threat to Trump’s life from Iran, an allegation the Islamic Republic called “malicious and baseless.”
When Merchant subsequently spoke to FBI agents to explore the possibility of a cooperation agreement, he did not say he acted out of fear for his family.
Prosecutors said he did not support his defense of acting under duress. Merchant sought to convince jurors that he simply did not think the agents would believe him because they seemed to “think I was some kind of super spy,” which he said was “not the case at all.”