Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man, was convicted of planning to kill US President Donald Trump and other politicians on Friday. He was accused of colluding with Iran and attempting to recruit people in the US to carry out the plot, the Department of Justice said.
US prosecutors claimed that Iran’s IRGC was involved with the merchant after the assassination of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Merchant was, according to the DOJ, targeting Trump in retaliation for the killing, AP reported.
In 2024, he also reportedly targetted then president Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump that year.
He 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 week-long trial, which came amid the US-Israel war with Iran, took place in Brooklyn.
One of Merchant’s lawyers said that the there are still "complex and significant legal issues yet to be decided". He is facing life in prison.
The DOJ said that Merchant was a trained operative of the IRGC.
He arrived in the US from Pakistan in April 2024 after spending time in Iran.
In June, he contacted a person whom he believed would help him carry out the assassination. The person, however, reported him to the police.
He then met with undercover law enforcement officers who posed as hitmen. He was arrested in July.
Merchant admitted that he was sent by the IRGC to arrange political assassinations during the trial. He said that he did so to protect his family in Tehran.
He also said that he was never ordered to kill a specific person, however his handler named three people during conversations.
