NEW YORK, Mar 7:
Asif Merchant, a 47-year-old Pakistani with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been convicted of murder-for-hire and attempting terrorism across national borders.
He has been found guilty of plotting to assassinate US officials, including President Donald Trump, by hiring a hitman in New York in 2024.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found him guilty after a weeklong trial in Brooklyn amid the US-Israel war with Iran.
According to prosecutors, Merchant, a trained operative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), sought to hire hitmen in New York to carry out political assassinations. The plot was uncovered after an acquaintance, whom Merchant approached to connect him with potential killers, tipped off authorities.
Undercover officers posing as hitmen met Merchant in June 2024, leading to his arrest the following month.
The trial, which lasted a week amid escalating US-Israel tensions with Iran, revealed that Merchant had been sent to the US in 2023 by the IRGC to scout possible recruits.
He returned the following year with a mission to recruit individuals to assassinate specific US political figures, steal sensitive documents, and organize protests.
According to the Justice Department, Merchant testified that the IRGC sent him to the US in 2023 to scout possible recruits to stay in the country. He returned to the US the following year, he said, with a mission to recruit people to assassinate one of three specific US political figures, to steal documents, and to arrange a protest.
Prosecutors said authorities learned of the assassination plot after Merchant asked an acquaintance to connect him with hit men, and that acquaintance tipped off law enforcement. Undercover officers posing as hit men met with Merchant in June 2024 and he was arrested the following month.
“This was not the first attempt by Iran to harm our citizens on US soil; the other efforts also failed,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a news release, adding, “let this verdict serve as a reminder that the FBI is committed to detecting such threats and preventing acts of violence, and we will hold accountable anyone who tries to interfere with our democratic system.”
Merchant faces up to life in prison. His lawyer noted that “complex and significant legal issues” related to the case remain pending. The conviction comes amid joint US-Israeli strikes against Iranian operatives, as tensions in West Asia continue to escalate.
“Iran’s terrorist regime sent Asif Merchant here to sow mayhem and murder,” stated United States Attorney Nocella for the Eastern District of New York.
As set forth in trial exhibits and testimony, including the defendant’s own testimony, Merchant began working for the IRGC in Pakistan in late 2022 or early 2023, when he received training in tradecraft, including counter-surveillance.
Later in 2023, he was sent to the United States to look for potential IRGC recruits who could stay behind in the United States. Merchant testified that he knew that the IRGC was a designated terrorist organization. Throughout this period, Merchant repeatedly traveled to Iran to meet his IRGC handler.
Merchant testified that in 2024, he was sent back to the United States with a new mission: recruit “Mafia” members to steal documents, stage a protest, and arrange the murder of one of three specific US government officials and politicians.
Merchant contacted an acquaintance in New York who he thought could help him with his scheme. That person, Nadeem Ali, instead reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source.
In early June, Merchant met Ali in New York and explained his assassination plot. Merchant told Ali that he had an ongoing opportunity for him and then made a “finger gun” motion with his hand, indicating that the opportunity was related to a killing.
Merchant began planning potential assassination scenarios and quizzed Ali on how he would kill a target in the various scenarios. Specifically, Merchant asked Ali to explain how the target would die in different scenarios. Merchant told Ali that there would be “security all around” the person.
Merchant stated that the assassination would occur after he left the United States and he would communicate with Ali from overseas using code words. Ali asked whether Merchant had spoken to the unidentified “party” back home with whom Merchant was working.
Merchant responded that he had and that the party back home told him to “finalize” the plan and leave the United States. Merchant would later testify that the “party” was his IRGC handler, the US Department of Justice said.
In mid-June, Merchant met the purported hitmen, who were in fact undercover US law enforcement officers (the UCs) in New York.
Merchant advised the UCs that he was looking for three services from them: theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies and for them to kill a “political person.”
(UNI)
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