Breaking: Pakistani National Convicted in Iran-Backed Plot to Assassinate Trump
The jury deliberated for just two hours before finding Merchant guilty. He faces a potential life sentence at his April 2026 sentencing.
NEW YORK – A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Asif Merchant, a 47-year-old Pakistani national, on murder-for-hire and terrorism charges Wednesday after a week-long trial, where he admitted to orchestrating an assassination plot against then-candidate Donald Trump on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The jury deliberated for just two hours before finding Merchant guilty. He faces a potential life sentence at his April 2026 sentencing. Merchant, born in Karachi with residences in Pakistan and Iran, testified that he was coerced by the IRGC to protect his family in Tehran, but prosecutors argued he had ample opportunity to seek U.S. help during his extended stays in America.
According to court evidence, Merchant's cousin connected him to the IRGC in late 2022. He met IRGC official Mehrdad Yousef in Tehran, who assigned a four-part operation: staging protests, stealing documents, laundering money, and arranging a high-profile murder. Yousef identified Trump, Joe Biden, and Nikki Haley as targets, with Trump prioritized due to the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani. Merchant received countersurveillance training and communicated with handlers via coded messages in shipped books.
Prosecutors presented Merchant's Facebook posts from 2020 showing Trump's decapitated head and next to a pig, expressing anti-U.S. sentiments. Merchant traveled frequently to Iran, Syria, and Iraq for his garment business, using it as cover. He was arrested July 12, 2024, in Texas while attempting to hire hitmen, one day before the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump.
Co-defendant Farhad Shakeri remains at large in Iran. The plot is part of broader IRGC efforts to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election and target Trump. IRGC leader Rahman Mokadam, allegedly behind the scheme, was killed in recent U.S.-Israeli strikes under Operation Epic Fury, which also eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The conviction underscores ongoing threats from Iran-linked actors, prompting heightened U.S. security measures amid the current military action.