Asif Merchant, 46, was arrested in July while trying to leave the country. He had been admitted into the United States via immigration parole for "significant public benefit," multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News.
A Pakistani national with links to Iran has been charged in a foiled plot to assassinate a US political figure, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Asif Merchant, 46, was arrested on July 12 while trying to leave the country, federal prosecutors said. He had been admitted into the United States via immigration parole for "significant public benefit," multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News.
A Pakistani National with Links to Iran Charged in Foiled Plot to Assassinate US Officials
The FBI sponsored Merchant's parole for "security interests," the law enforcement sources said. The FBI had eyes on Merchant before he arrived in the US and needed him to physically enter the country so they could build a case and arrest him. If they arrested him at customs, they would not have been able to gather evidence and information about his plot, the sources said.
According to the Justice Department, Merchant flew into Houston in April and encountered US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. Days after arriving in Houston, he flew to New York City and worked with a person he believed to be a hit man in a murder-for-hire plot, which he wanted to be carried out in August or September.
A Pakistani National with Links to Iran Charged in Foiled Plot to Assassinate US Officials
The hit man contacted the FBI and became a confidential source for the law enforcement agency.
Merchant was potentially targeting former President Trump, the sources said. However, the plot has no ties to Trump being shot during a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
A Pakistani National with Links to Iran Charged in Foiled Plot to Assassinate US Officials
Merchant told authorities he has a wife and children in Iran and a wife and children in Pakistan. Iran has not confirmed or denied being involved in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme.
"The Justice Department has brought multiple cases against individuals working on behalf of the Iranian government to lethally target Americans in the United States," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday. "But as I said last week, we expect that these threats will continue and that these cases will not be the last."
A Pakistani National with Links to Iran Charged in Foiled Plot to Assassinate US Officials
Security concerns related to Trump and his former advisers have been raised before about possible retaliation from Tehran for a 2020 airstrike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"We have not received any reports on this matter from the U.S. Government," the Iranian Permanent Mission to the United Nations told Fox News Digital this week. "However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian Government’s policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani."
