OAN Staff Sophia Flores
3:49 PM – Saturday, March 7, 2026
A Pakistani man has been convicted by a jury of plotting to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent U.S. politicians in an Iran-backed plot on American soil.
On Friday, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Asif Merchant of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries” on behalf of Iran.
He arrived in the United States in April 2024 but was “met with purported hitmen in June—who were in fact undercover U.S. law enforcement officers in New York—and was placed under arrest before leaving the country in July of 2024.”
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. “The Department of Justice will remain ever-vigilant to protect Americans, prosecute terrorists, and halt acts of terrorism before they happen.”
The trained operative of the Iranian government’s global terrorist force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was trying to recruit individuals to help him kill Trump and others in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office.
Other prominent names in the 2024 plot that were targeted were then President Joe Biden and Republican presidential nominee Nikki Haley.
Merchant began working for the IRGC in Pakistan in late 2022 or early 2023, during which time he received training in tradecraft, including countersurveillance techniques. In 2023, he was tasked with identifying potential IRGC recruits who could remain in the United States.
According to testimony from Merchant, in 2024 he returned to the U.S. with a new mission: to recruit members of organized crime networks to steal sensitive documents, stage protests intended to create political disruption, and target one of three specific U.S. government officials and politicians for assassination. To that end, Merchant contacted an acquaintance in New York whom he believed could assist with the plot.
Unknown to him, the individuals he paid a $5,000 advance to act as hitmen were cooperating with law enforcement under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They allowed authorities to record their conversations, which ultimately prevented the alleged plot from advancing.
Merchant made plans to leave the U.S. on Friday, July 12, 2024 — one day before Trump was shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was arrested before he could leave the country.
During the trial, Merchant claimed that he was coerced into participating in the plot as the IRGC was threatening his family.
“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” he testified.
Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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