A Pakistani man accused of plotting the assassination of American politicians, including Donald Trump, claimed Wednesday that he was pressured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to come up with the plan, according to US media.
Asif Raza Merchant, 47, was accused in September 2024 before the United States federal court of trying to hire a hitman to assassinate American politicians. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During his trial on Wednesday, Merchant testified that he was forced to participate in the plot to protect his family in Tehran from the Iranian Guard, and that he thought he would be caught before anyone was killed, several media outlets reported.
He said he was never ordered to kill a specific person, but noted that his Iranian contact had mentioned three names: Trump, former President Joe Biden and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
“My family was under threat and I had to do this,” Merchant told the court through an Urdu interpreter, according to The Washington Post.
Merchant’s trial comes as the United States and Israel continue their attacks on Iran’s murderous regime, which eliminated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The murderous Iranian regime
The Pentagon said Wednesday that during the operations U.S. forces killed the leader of an Iranian unit that attempted to assassinate Trump.
US officials have accused Iran of trying to assassinate the Republican leader to avenge the death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, killed by a drone strike in Iraq in 2020 ordered by Trump during his first presidential term.
Authorities had previously said Merchant had “close ties to Iran” and described the alleged plot as “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook.”
Merchant stated this week that he began working in 2022 with a Guard member who asked him if he was “interested in doing some work with the Iranian government,” according to The New York Times.
He was eventually instructed to orchestrate a plan that involved organizing protests, stealing documents, laundering money, and potentially getting someone murdered.
According to the Times, Merchant said he was worried about what might happen to his wife and adopted daughter in Iran, so he agreed to the operation.
He was arrested after trying to hire hitmen who turned out to be undercover FBI agents.
