US charges man with alleged ties to Iran in foiled assassination plot

By Andrew Goudsward and Luc Cohen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government officials, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

Former President Donald Trump, who as president approved the drone strike on Soleimani, was discussed as a potential target of the plot, but the scheme was not conceived of as a plot to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York's Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on July 17, according to court records.

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Court documents do not name the alleged targets of the plot. Merchant told a law enforcement informant that there would be "security all around" one target, according to the criminal complaint.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment further. Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer for Merchant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We have not received any reports on this matter from the U.S. Government. However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian Government’s policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani," the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York said in a statement to Reuters.

Trump, the Republican candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election, was wounded in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month. Garland said on Tuesday that investigators have found no evidence that Merchant had any connection to the shooting, which officials have said was carried out by a lone 20-year-old gunman.

Trump's presidential campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.

Law enforcement thwarted Merchant's plan before any attack was carried out. An individual Merchant contacted in April to help assist with the plot reported his activities to law enforcement and became a confidential informant, according to the complaint.

Merchant told the informant his plans also included stealing documents from one target and organizing protests in the United States, prosecutors allege.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Costas Pitas, Andrew Goudsward and Luc Cohen. Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)