An alleged Iranian agent plotted to hire hitmen to assassinate US government officials — including possibly former President Donald Trump, according to sources and a federal criminal complaint.
Pakistani national Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of planning political assassinations in New York City in August or early September, and paid $5,000 in advances to men he believed to be contract killers, according to US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
“The Iranian indicted in Eastern District today is 100% an agent of the Iranian government,” a law enforcement source told The Post.
Asif Merchant had been charged in connection with a failed assassination plot against former president Donald Trump.
The plot was allegedly in retaliation to the 2020 Trump-ordered killing of prominent Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, US Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed Tuesday.
Trump has been a known target of previous Iranian-backed assassination plots, and the feds believe he may have been one of Merchant’s targets, law enforcement sources told The Post. But, the accused terrorist never divulged the name of who he planned to kill during his meetings with undercover agents — instead cryptically saying only that the target would have “a lot of security.”
Merchant traveled to New York in June to meet with the supposed hitmen – who turned out to be undercover law enforcement officers – and told them he was arranging the funds with a contact overseas, according to the US Attorney’s office.
Days later he came up, with the cash in advance and allegedly told the undercover agents they were going forward with the plot, prosecutors said.
The next month, as he was preparing to leave the US on July 12, he was arrested.
Before encountering the undercover agents, Merchant had previously traveled to the US and trolled seedy hangouts like strip clubs and bars hoping to encounter criminals he could recruit into his plot, law enforcement sources said.
He eventually came across a man who informed the FBI, and the undercover operation was organized.
While unknowingly meeting with agents, Merchant went so far as to sketch out possible assassination plans on napkins and said “Yes, absolutely” when asked if the exchange of funds meant the plans were to move ahead, according to court documents.
One plot called for a protest of about 25 people to act as some kind of “distraction” after the assassination, according to court documents.
The plot was foiled before it could be put into motion, authorities said.
Merchant was allegedly preparing to pay the hitmen $5,000.
After being detained, Merchant revealed that he had a wife and children living in Iran, and also a wife and children living in Pakistan, according to prosecutors.
One of Merchant’s homes is in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
The Iran-backed plot led the Secret Service to bolster Trump’s security detail before the July 13 assassination attempt, sources told The Post.
But authorities said Merchant’s case is unrelated to the attempt on Trump’s life by Thomas Crooks, who opened fire from a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Nevertheless, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said officials’ knowledge of Merchant’s plot before the Butler rally – he was arrested just a day before — made that assassination attempt all the more unacceptable.
“The failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania, is even more outrageous in light of suspected Iranian-backed assassins targeting former Trump Administration officials, including President Trump himself,” said Turner in a statement.
“That day, the threat of sniper attacks was even higher than normal,” he added.
