**Pakistani Business Owner Convicted for Attempted Assassination Plot Against U.S. Politician**
*NEW YORK* — A Pakistani business owner who attempted to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician was convicted Friday in a trial that highlighted allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil.
Amid the escalating tensions of the Iran war in the Middle East, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a U.S. courtroom that he sought to initiate an assassination during the 2024 presidential campaign. The plot was swiftly disrupted by American investigators before it could advance.
A jury in Brooklyn found Merchant guilty on charges of terrorism and murder for hire.
The case revealed how Merchant, after demonstrating his plan to an acquaintance using objects on a napkin to depict a shooting at a political rally, was introduced to two supposed assassins. These individuals were, in reality, undercover FBI agents who secretly recorded his conversations—an acquaintance had also been recording him.
Merchant told the purported hit men that he required services that could include killing “some political person.” He paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan.
In compelling testimony before a New York federal court, Merchant stated he was acting under instructions from a contact within Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, his handler did not specify a particular target but mentioned names including then-candidate Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and 2024 presidential candidate.
The Iranian government has denied any involvement in plots to kill U.S. officials.
Merchant, age 47, previously worked for Pakistani banks for decades before entering the clothing and other business sectors. He maintains two families—in Pakistan and Iran—and occasionally traveled to the U.S. for his garment business.
Merchant testified that he met a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative approximately three years ago. This contact provided him with countersurveillance training and assigned him tasks, including the assassination scheme. He asserted that he carried out these orders to protect loved ones in Iran.
The defendant described his reluctant participation, stating, “I was going along with it,” speaking in Urdu via a court interpreter. He believed he would be arrested and have the opportunity to explain his situation to authorities before anyone was harmed.
Prosecutors underscored that Merchant admitted taking concrete steps to carry out the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. designates as a foreign terrorist organization. Notably, he did not voluntarily approach law enforcement. Instead, he was preparing to depart for Pakistan when he was arrested on July 12, 2024—a day before an unrelated assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Authorities indicated that the Butler gunman appeared to act alone, though they had been monitoring threats against Trump’s life originating from Iran. Iran dismissed these claims as “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
During subsequent discussions with FBI agents regarding a possible cooperation agreement, Merchant did not mention acting out of fear for his family. Prosecutors argued that he failed to substantiate a defense based on duress.
Merchant tried to convince jurors that he refrained from cooperation because he believed the agents assumed he was a “super-spy,” which he strongly denied being.
This conviction adds to ongoing concerns about foreign interference and threats targeting U.S. political figures on American soil.
https://abc7.com/post/asif-merchant-convicted-us-political-assassination-plot-he-tied-iranian-paramilitary/18686448/