The claim sounded like something out of a spy movie: a Pakistani businessman tries to hire hitmen, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill an American politician. On behalf of Iran Strong Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
This was true, and potential targets for the 2024 plot included the current president Donald Trumpthen president Joe Biden The former presidential candidate and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley“, the man told jurors at his home Trying to prosecute terrorism In New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were motivated by fear for his loved ones in Iran, and he believed he would be arrested before anything of the plot came to light.
The accused, Asif Merchant, testified through an Urdu translator: “My family was under threat, and I had to do it.” “I didn’t want to do it willingly.”
Merchant said he expected to be arrested before anyone was killed, and he intended to cooperate with the US government, which he hoped would help him obtain a green card.
The American authorities were already watching him, as the killers he supposedly paid were actually undercover FBI agents He was arrested On July 12, 2024, one day before an unrelated incident Trump assassination attempt (Butler, Pennsylvania). Merchant gave voluntary interviews with the FBI, but ultimately ended up with a prosecution, not a cooperation deal.
“You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring mafia members to kill a politician, right?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Neena Gupta asked as she cross-examined Merchant on Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.
“That’s true,” replied Merchant, and his matter-of-fact demeanor, like his testimony, was extraordinary.
The trial unfolds in less than a week Iran warWho killed the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei In a jab Trump summed up as “I got him before he got me.” Jurors are asked to ignore news about the case.
The Iranian government denied planning to kill Trump or other American officials.
Merchant, 47, had worked in the banking sector for almost 20 years in Pakistan before becoming involved in a range of businesses: clothing, car sales, banana exports and insulation material imports. He openly has two families, one in Pakistan and the other in Iran – where, he said, he was introduced at the end of 2022 to an IRGC intelligence agent. Merchant said they initially talked about participating in the hawala system, an informal money transfer system.
The merchant testified that his periodic visits to the United States for his clothing business sparked the interest of his contacts in the Revolutionary Guard, who trained him in counter-surveillance techniques.
The United States considers the Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization.” This force, officially called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was prominent in Iran during Khamenei’s era.
The merchant said that the worker asked him to look for American residents interested in working for Iran. Then came another mission: looking for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, “and maybe kill someone,” Merchant recalls.
He added: “He didn’t tell me exactly who he was, but he told me – he mentioned three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley.”
After US immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at a Houston airport in April 2024, searched his belongings and asked him about his travels to Iran, they concluded he was under surveillance. But he continued to research Trump rally sites, plotted a shooting at a political rally, rounded up supposed hitmen and collected $5,000 from his cousin as a “token of appreciation.”
He even informed his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending notes — false, Merchant said — tucked into a book he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries.
Merchant said he had “no other choice” but to come forward because the therapist indicated he knew who Merchant’s Iranian relatives were and where they lived.
In a lawsuit this week, prosecutors noted that Merchant did not ask law enforcement for help with his alleged predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he could not turn to the authorities because his therapist had people monitoring him.
Prosecutors also said that in his interviews with the FBI, Merchant “neglected to mention any facts that could support” the argument that he acted under duress.
Merchant told jurors Wednesday that he didn’t think agents would believe his story, because their questions suggested “they think I’m some kind of super spy.”
“And are you a super spy?” asked defense attorney Abraham Moskowitz.
“No,” said the merchant. “Not at all.”