PHOTO: Asif Merchant of Pakistan is alleged to have ties to Iran and has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, the Justice Department said Aug. 6, 2024. (Justice Department via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.
The case disclosed by the Justice Department on Tuesday comes two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.
Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said. He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.
Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged
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