The Justice Department has charged a Pakistani man with alleged ties to the Iranian government for attempting to carry out political assassinations, leading the US government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, as reported by Israel National News.

FBI investigators believe Trump and other current and former US officials were the targets of the plot, as reported by CNN.

Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hitman to execute the assassinations in late August or early September, as per charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.

Merchant was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the US, prosecutors said, shortly after he met with purported hitmen who he believed would carry out the murders but were actually undercover law enforcement officers. He is currently in federal custody.

The FBI investigated the alleged international murder-for-hire plot in the weeks leading up to a near-assassination attempt on the former president by a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania at one of his rallies. A law enforcement official told CNN that investigators have not found evidence linking Merchant to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The FBI believes it thwarted Merchant’s plot before any attack could occur. Since his arrest, Merchant has cooperated with investigators, according to US officials. Due to known Iranian threats against Trump, the FBI shared the intelligence with the US Secret Service, which increased security for the former president.

The plot revealed by US prosecutors adds to a growing list of alleged Iranian plans to kill Trump, according to national security officials. The US government has consistently raised concerns about potential Iranian retaliation for a 2020 US drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), by targeting Trump or his former advisers.

US prosecutors have charged others for similar assassination attempts, including a 2022 case against a 45-year-old Iranian national and IRGC member who allegedly offered $300,000 to someone in the US to kill former national security adviser John Bolton. Prosecutors believe this plot was likely in retaliation for Soleimani’s death.

Attorney General Merrick Garland stated on Tuesday that the US "will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security."

Merchant arrived in New York City in April, aiming to hire a hitman for assassinations on US soil. Although Merchant is a Pakistani national, prosecutors say he spent time in Iran and has family there. Upon arriving in the US, Merchant contacted someone he believed would help with the murder-for-hire plot. However, that person informed the FBI and began working as a confidential source for investigators.

Prosecutors say Merchant met with the confidential source in early June and expressed his desire to find people in New York to steal documents or USB drives from a victim’s home, plan protests at political rallies, and carry out assassinations. Merchant allegedly indicated that this was not a one-time job and made a "finger gun" gesture.

As the meeting continued, Merchant discussed a “party” back home with whom he was working and started planning potential scenarios, asking the confidential source how a person with extensive security could be killed, according to prosecutors. Later in June, Merchant met with undercover law enforcement officers posing as hitmen and arranged to pay them a $5,000 advance for the assassination.

Merchant intended to leave the country before the assassination, but he was arrested before he could depart.

Source: INN