Pakistani National Arrested in Complex Plot to Assassinate Donald Trump

US Attorney General Merrick Garland unveils charges against Asif Merchant. Asif is a Pakistani national who was involved in a complex assassination plot targeting a Republican presidential candidate, widely believed to be Donald Trump. Though the name was not disclosed by Garland.

Garland said that the Justice Department has been vigilant in combating efforts by Iran to retaliate against American officials for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani. Trump’s role as the U.S. President who ordered Soleimani’s death in Baghdad in 2020 strongly points to him as the focus of the assassination plan.

Court documents reveal that multiple individuals might have been targets, as the documents refer to potential victims in the plural. FBI Director Christopher Wray described the plot as a “dangerous murder-for-hire scheme,” orchestrated by a Pakistani national with connections to Iran, resembling tactics often associated with Iran.

Asif Raza Merchant disclosed to authorities that he has two wives one in Pakistan and another in Iran, with children in both countries.

This includes all the stealing documents from a target’s home and staging protests, involved Merchant using code names for each aspect: “tee-shirt” for protests, “flannel shirt” for theft, “fleece jacket” for the assassination, and “yarn-dye” for their meetings.

Merchant attempted to lure a government informant by proposing a business deal related to his “yarn-dyed” business in Pakistan. He even asked the informant, who he believed was a hired assassin, to detail how the target would be killed under different circumstances.

This revelation comes just weeks after a failed assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. However, there appears to be no link between Merchant’s plot and that incident, which officials attributed to a lone actor.

Merchant’s plan unraveled when he inadvertently recruited FBI agents for the assassination attempt. Christie Curtis, Acting Assistant Director of the New York FBI Field Office, noted that “Fortunately, the assassins Merchant tried to hire were undercover FBI agents.”

Merchant was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the country. He had arrived in the U.S. in April from Pakistan after spending time in Iran. Upon his arrival he reached out to someone he believed could assist him who instead reported the contact to law enforcement and became a confidential source.

In mid-June, Merchant met in New York with individuals he thought were professional killers, who were actually undercover law enforcement officers. He instructed them to steal documents, organize protests at political rallies, and kill a “political person.” He indicated that the assassination would need to occur after his departure from the U.S., and that the target’s identity would be revealed in late August or early September.

Merchant received $5,000 from overseas which he used as a down payment to the undercover agents. According to court documents after receiving the money he said, “Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” to which Merchant replied, “Yes, absolutely.”

Political violence remains a significant concern in the U.S. Just last week, a man in Virginia was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The suspect, Frank Lucio Carillo, posted a message on a right-wing social media platform saying, “Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive. I will do it personally if no one else does… I want her to suffer a slow agonizing death,” according to the FBI complaint filed in Federal court. Carillo also allegedly threatened President Joe Biden and FBI Director Wray.