Trump Assassination Plotter Gets Convicted of Terrorism, Murder for Hire

The would-be assassin was sent to the United States to recruit individuals for carrying out attacks.

Asif Merchant. Justice Department via AP

A federal jury convicted Asif Raza Merchant, a trained operative of the Iranian regime’s global terrorist force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for attempting to arrange political assassinations, according to a March 6 statement from the Justice Department.

Merchant, a Pakistani national, was apprehended on July 12, 2024, when he was setting out to leave the United States after failing in his attempt to murder high-ranking U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump. He conspired with undercover agents, who posed as assassins, in a scheme in retaliation for the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump—instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

According to the latest Department of Justice (DOJ) statement, Merchant admitted, at trial, that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him to the United States to arrange for political assassinations and steal documents. He has been convicted of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and of murder for hire, and he faces up to life in prison.

Merchant began working for the IRGC in Pakistan in about 2022 or 2023, and he received training in espionage techniques, including countersurveillance, after which he was sent to the United States to look for potential IRGC recruits, the DOJ statement said.

IRGC was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State in 2019.

In 2024, Merchant was sent to the United States to recruit “Mafia” members for the purposes of stealing documents, staging protests, and arranging the murder of one of three specific U.S. government officials and politicians. More details on the politicians were not given by the department.

“Merchant tried to hire someone to kill a politician or a U.S. government official, but the FBI and our partners stopped that deadly plot,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “This was not the first attempt by Iran to harm our citizens on U.S. soil; the other efforts also failed. Let this verdict serve as a reminder that the FBI is committed to detecting such threats and preventing acts of violence, and we will hold accountable anyone who tries to interfere with our democratic system.”

Merchant’s conviction comes as War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on March 4 that a leader of an Iranian unit that allegedly tried to assassinate Trump has been “hunted down and killed.” Hegseth did not name the individual.

“[Iran] tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth told reporters. “We’ve known for a long time that Iran had intentions on trying to kill President Trump and or other U.S. officials.”

“And while that was not the focus of the effort by any stretch of the imagination ... I ensured, and others ensured, that those who were responsible for that were eventually part of the target list,” he said.

Previous Cases

Iran has made several attempts in the past to assassinate U.S. officials or Iranian dissidents living in the United States.

In 2022, the Biden administration charged Shahram Poursafi, a member of the IRGC, with plotting to kill John Bolton, who was the national security adviser during the first Trump administration. The DOJ alleged that Poursafi was likely acting in retaliation for the death of Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020.

According to the FBI, Shahram remains at large. The State Department is offering up to $20 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

In January, a federal judge sentenced a man to a maximum of 15 years in prison for plotting to kill Iranian American writer and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad on behalf of Tehran.

At the court, Alinejad urged the judge to give the man a maximum sentence to send a message to those “targeting U.S. citizens on U.S. soil,” and also to protect unarmed people like her “facing massacre” in her country.

According to the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2023, Iran has carried out terror activities in other Western nations.

“Albania, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all either arrested, convicted, or expelled Iranian government officials implicated in various terrorist plots in their respective territories,“ the report reads. ”Denmark similarly recalled its ambassador from Tehran after learning of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian dissident in that country.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News on March 2 that there could be Iranian “sleeper cells” in his state. His comments came after a man recently opened fire at a bar in Austin that killed three people and injured several others. Law enforcement said the man was wearing clothes with an Iranian flag and the words “Property of Allah.”

“We made clear to the public that the state of Texas is taking seriously the possibility of terrorist activity,” Abbott said.

“You oftentimes see when there’s a war breaking out like this, where the United States may be going against a country like Iran, that you could have either sleeper cells or lone wolves acting.”