A Pakistani man was convicted on Friday of planning to \u200bkill President Donald Trump and other prominent U.S. politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran, the Department \u200bof Justice said. Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit \u200bpeople in the U.S. in a \u2060plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington’s killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani \u200bin 2020, when \u200cTrump was in his first term. Targets in the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against \u200bTrump that year for the Republican presidential nomination, federal prosecutors said. Merchant was convicted of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries,” directed \u200cby the \u200cIranian authorities, the DOJ \u200bsaid in a statement. The trial in the New York City borough of Brooklyn started last week, days before Trump ordered an assault on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region’s biggest
\u200bwar in years. Merchant admitted to joining the plot with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps but testified he did so unwillingly, to protect his family in Tehran. Merchant said \u200bhe was never ordered to kill a specific person but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations in the Iranian capital. Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 \u200cto help with the plot reported his activities and became a confidential informant, the DOJ said. Merchant was arrested and pleaded not guilty that year. The Revolutionary Guards have \u2060a central role in \u200bIran, with a combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. Tehran has denied accusations that it targeted Trump or other U.S. officials. U.S. and Israeli attacks since Saturday \u2060have killed at least 1,332 \u2060Iranian civilians and wounded \u2060thousands, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, includin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Pakistani man was convicted on Friday of planning to \u200bkill President Donald Trump and other prominent U.S. politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran, the Department \u200bof Justice said. Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit \u200bpeople in the U.S. in a \u2060plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n