Pakistani national with ties to Iran charged in connection to a foiled assassination plot potentially targeting Trump
FBI investigators believe that Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, a US official briefed on the matter said.
Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.
Merchant was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the United States, prosecutors said, shortly after he met with purported hitmen who he believed would carry the murders but were actually undercover law enforcement officers. He is in federal custody.
The FBI investigated the alleged international murder-for-hire plot in the weeks before a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania nearly assassinated the former president at one of his rallies.A law enforcement official told CNN that investigators have not found evidence that Merchant had any connection to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The FBI believes it foiled Merchant’s plot before any attack, and in the weeks since his arrest he has cooperated with investigators, according to US officials. But the Iranian government’s known threats against Trump, prompted the FBI to pass on the intelligence to the US Secret Service, which increased security protection for the former president, officials have said.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The investigation into the assassination plot hints at potential political motives, as the FBI believes Trump and other government officials were targeted. Despite Merchant's arrest, there's no confirmed link between his case and the politics-fueled shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. The heightened security for Trump is a direct response to the Iranian government's threats, as reported by US officials.
