Pakistani businessman accused of plotting to kill Trump, Biden blames Iran: 'My family was threatened'

Asif Merchant (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

A Pakistani man accused of plotting to kill US politicians including President Donald Trump has reportedly testified that Iranian spies forced him to carry out the plan. According to Asif Merchant, he was recruited by a Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) handler of Iran with a hit job in 2024. There were three targets - Donald Trump, then President Joe Biden and ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

A businessman from Pakistan, the 47-year-old is currently on trial for attempted terrorism in US. He reportedly testified that his Iranian spy handler ordered him to go to the US in 2024 to carry out the assassination plot as well as steal unidentified documents.

The Justice Department has accused Merchant of attempting to hire individuals in US for a plot targeting Donald Trump and other American politicians, allegedly in retaliation for Washington's killing of the Corps' top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Merchant claimed he was compelled to be a part of the assassination plot as his family in Tehran was threatened, the New York Post reported. "I had no other options. My family was threatened. I did not want to do this willingly," he told the court during his trial on terrorism and murder-for-hire charges. He was arrested in July 2024 when the FBI's secret security cameras caught him inside a motel describing plans to kill a politician.

Merchant's handler, who he named as Mehrdad Yousef, was reportedly a member of the IRGC. He claimed that Yousef made an unannounced visit outside his Iran-based home and displayed a weapon during their meetings. Merchant has five children with two wives, one in Pakistan and one in Iran.

According to NYT, the Pakistani national said he had never been ordered to kill a specific ‌person ⁠but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations.

Speaking to ABC News about the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that led to the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump on Sunday cited an alleged Iranian plot. "I got him before he got me," the US President said.

Testifying in his own defense, Merchant said he had known the scheme, which involved hiring hit men, stealing documents and staging a protest, had little chance of succeeding. The hit men he ended up meeting were undercover FBI agents.

A former banker with a failed banana business, Merchant told the court that his Iranian spy handler ordered him in April 2024 to go to the United States and 'maybe to have somebody murdered'.

According to the Pakistani national, he started working with the Iranian operatives in late 2022 or early 2023, assisting them in laundering money to bypass US sanctions. He has been charged with paying two undercover FBI agents posing as hitmen $ 5,000 to carry out the attacks.