Had no other option: Pak man claims Iranian spies hired him to kill Trump, Biden
India Today
A Pakistani national accused of plotting to assassinate senior US political figures has claimed that Iranian intelligence operatives recruited him to kill President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
A Pakistani national accused of plotting to assassinate top US political leaders has made a bombshell claim that Iranian intelligence operatives recruited him to kill President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden and former US ambassador to UN Nikki Haley.
Asif Merchant, 47, alleged during testimony in a Brooklyn federal courtroom on Wednesday that he was coerced into the plan after threats were made against his family. “I had no other option. My family was threatened,” he told jurors.
Merchant is charged with attempting to hire two men he believed were contract killers — but who were in fact undercover FBI agents — offering them just USD 5,000 (around Rs 4.6 lakh) to carry out the alleged assassination plot, The New York Post reported.
Describing himself as a former banker whose banana export business had collapsed, Merchant said an Iranian handler contacted him in April 2024 and instructed him to travel to the US, suggesting he might need to “have somebody murdered.” He testified that he was later given three possible targets – Trump, Biden and Haley.
At the time of the alleged plot, Trump and Biden were the leading contenders in the 2024 US presidential election, while Haley had withdrawn from the race just a month earlier.
Merchant, who has pleaded not guilty to terrorism and murder-for-hire charges following his arrest in August 2024, testified that he had first volunteered to work with Iranian operatives in late 2022 or early 2023. He claimed he initially assisted them in laundering money to help bypass US sanctions, according to The New York Post.
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