United States media reported that a Pakistani man accused of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump has accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of coercion. Asif Raza Merchant said he was pressured to hatch a murder-for-hire plan. His plot failed when he actually hired some Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents as hit men.
A Pakistani man was charged in September 2024 with trying to hire a hitman to assassinate unidentified American politicians. He denied the accusation.
The Revolutionary Guards have previously sought to kill top US officials such as Trump after the United States killed one of its commanders, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020.
During his trial on Wednesday, Asif Raza Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family members who reside in Tehran. He said he thought he would be caught before someone was killed, multiple media outlets reported.
He also mentioned that his contract names three people in connection with the conspiracy: Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
According to the Washington Post, Raza Merchant said, “My family was at risk and I had to do it. I didn’t want to do it so willingly.” He is currently on trial.
The trials of the Pakistani man came as the United States, in a joint operation with Israel, launched heavy airstrikes on Iran on February 28. The attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many other politicians.
U.S. officials have previously said Merchant had “close ties to Iran” and described his alleged plot as “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook.”
Merchant said this week that he began working with a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards around 2022 after the man asked if he was “interested in doing some work with the Iranian government,” the New York Times reported.
He was eventually instructed to orchestrate a plot that involved organizing protests, stealing documents, laundering money, and potentially killing someone.
The Times reported that Merchant said he was worried about what would happen to his wife and adopted daughter in Iran, so he agreed to the operation.
He was arrested after allegedly trying to hire hitmen who turned out to be undercover FBI agents.
Asif Raza Merchant is a Pakistani national who travels frequently to Iran, Iraq and Syria, his travel records showed, according to the Department of Justice. He has two wives. While one lives in Pakistan, the other lives in Iran.
