Man accused of plotting to kill Trump, Asif Raza Merchant, told a U.S. court that he was pressured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to join an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting American political figures. Merchant, 47, a Pakistani national, was charged in September 2024 with attempting to hire a hitman to attack unidentified U.S. politicians. He has pleaded not guilty.
During testimony, Merchant said he acted under threat to his family in Tehran. “My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” he told the court through an Urdu interpreter, according to reporting by The Washington Post. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”
Merchant did not claim he received a direct order to target a specific individual. However, he said his Iranian contact referenced three high-profile American leaders: former president Donald Trump, former president Joe Biden, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. U.S. officials have long accused the Revolutionary Guards of targeting American officials after the 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
Merchant’s trial comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. Military operations by the United States and Israel against Iran have continued in recent months, reportedly resulting in the deaths of high-ranking Iranian figures, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
U.S. authorities have described Merchant as having “close ties to Iran” and labeled the plot as “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook.” The New York Times reports that Merchant told investigators he first began working with a Revolutionary Guards member in 2022, after being approached about “doing some work with the Iranian government.”
Merchant said he was instructed to organise a range of activities, including arranging protests, stealing documents, laundering money, and potentially facilitating an assassination. He emphasized that fear for the safety of his wife and adopted daughter in Iran influenced his compliance with the plan.
Authorities said Merchant was arrested after allegedly attempting to hire individuals he believed to be hitmen, who were in fact undercover agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His case highlights the complex and shadowed networks of coercion, international tension, and intelligence operations that continue to shape U.S.-Iran relations.
