A Pakistani man with suspected ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection with a failed plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government official, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.
A criminal complaint said Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Former President Donald Trump was mentioned as a possible target in the plot, but the plot did not involve assassinating him, a source said.
Merchant, who prosecutors say spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, with recruiting or attempting to recruit people to kill for hire, according to court documents. A federal judge ordered him detained on July 17.
“For years, the Department of Justice has worked aggressively to counter Iran’s blatant and ongoing efforts to retaliate against U.S. government officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The court documents did not name the targets of the plot. The criminal complaint said Merchant told a law enforcement informant that there would be “perimeter security” at one of the targets.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York said in a statement: “We have not received any reports on this matter from the U.S. government. However, it is clear that this modus operandi is inconsistent with the Iranian government’s policy of prosecuting the killer of General Soleimani.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was wounded in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month.
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