On Tuesday, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment in which it charged a Pakistani man with allegedly attempting to carry out assassinations, including of former President Trump, on behalf of Iran.
The FBI believes Trump and other former and current Government officials were the targets of the Iranian plot.
The man, a 46 year old Pakistani named Asif Merchant, is accused of traveling to NYC and meeting with a hitman, with plans for the assassinations to take place in late August or early September. Merchant was then arrested on July 12th while preparing to leave the US, and is currently in federal custody. What hitmen he met with to carry out the attacks were in fact undercover law enforcement officers. Merchant allegedly offered the officers $5,000 to carry out assassinations.
Merchant is now cooperating with investigators, and the FBI believes his plots were stopped before any attacks could occur. However this is not the only instance of Iran plotting to kill Trump or other American officials.
In 2022 a 45-year-old Iranian national and IRGC member was charged with offering $300,000 to someone to kill former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, over the elimination of Qasem Soleimani.
Following these most recent charges , US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the US: “will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”
{Matzav.com}