A Pakistani man with purported ties to Iran is set to appear in U.S. court on Monday on charges of plotting to assassinate an American politician in recrimination for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander, Qassem Soleimani.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn reported that Asif Merchant, aged 46, had spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot.
Merchant had confided in a confidential informant that he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States.
The defendant had named Donald Trump as a likely target but had not planned the scheme as a plan to kill the former president, according to a person with insider knowledge on the matter who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, court papers had not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. Recall that president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani.
There are no suggestions that Merchant was associated to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, nor on a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
As it stands, Merchant faces one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire and he is expected to enter a plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn 16:00 GMT. Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations had released a statement in August, saying that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers was contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”
