Justice dept. Charges Pakistani man in alleged plot to kill US Leaders
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had charged a Pakistani man who had recently visited Iran with trying to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the U.S. Investigators believe that potential targets likely included former President Donald Trump, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The man, Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was arrested in New York on July 12, one day before a 20-year-old man, Matthew Crooks, shot at and slightly wounded Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, according to a complaint unsealed in federal court in New York City on Tuesday.
Officials said they had no evidence indicating the plot was connected to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. But they said the arrest of Merchant — who had recently spent two weeks in Iran — had disrupted what they characterized as a far-ranging plot that also included seeking to steal computer files from U.S. officials.
U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against Trump in the weeks before the assassination attempt that prompted the Secret Service to enhance security for the former president before his outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It is not clear if the scheme made public Tuesday precipitated those moves.
Merchant “orchestrated a plot to assassinate U.S. government officials and steal information on U.S. soil,” prosecutors wrote in documents unsealed Tuesday.
“After spending time in Iran, Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hit men to carry out his scheme,” they said.
In an affidavit accompanying the charges, an FBI agent said “the tradecraft and operational security measures” employed by Merchant were consistent with the actions of someone “plotting on behalf of a foreign adversary.”
The bureau arrested Merchant as he attempted to leave the country from New York.
After arriving in the U.S. in April, Merchant contacted a person who he thought could help him carry out his plans. Instead, his contact told law enforcement officials, and became a confidential informant.
Merchant did not say whom he wanted to assassinate in his discussions with the informant, but said he hoped to pull off the killing, or killings, in late August or early September.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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